Transparent Pricing to Gather the Public Opinion

China's top economic planner has recently begun soliciting public opinion on a revised draft regulation on the price hearings.

An article in the English newspaper China Daily says such an effort to increase openness, fairness and efficiency in public hearings on price-setting is badly needed not only because public complaints about rising prices are soaring, but because it will have huge implications for the long-term interests of people.

But an article carried in the Beijing News points out two defects in this new draft.

The existing system stipulates that a third party can be involved in an enterprise's financial evaluation, which was cancelled in the new draft.

The article says this may threaten the credibility of the enterprise's financial condition and lead to poor decisions, which will seriously damage the public interest.

The existing system also allows consumers and community groups to bring forward a price hearing. But there have been no detailed specifications in this regard, leaving the consumers' rights as little more than a "paper painting of the pie."

The article therefore suggests granting consumers, enterprises and government authorities equal rights to express their opinions so that the price hearing system lives up to the hype.