A customer shops for powdered milk at a Co.op Mart supermarket in HCM City. (Photo: baocongthuong)Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has delivereddocuments to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) regarding themanagement of 877 formula milk products for children less than six years old.
The Domestic Market Department under the MoIT will be responsiblefor managing the prices of these products.
According to Decree No 149/NĐ-CP dated November 11, 2016, enacted by the Governmentto supplement and revise some articles of Decree No 177/2013/NĐ-CP, themanagement of milk prices for children less than six years old will be theresponsibility of the MoIT in 2017.
At present, the country has 877 registered formula products forchildren below six years old. Their registered and maximum prices arepublicised on the portals of the MoF and local financial departments.
Since June 2014, baby formulas have been placed on the list ofsubsidized products, with a cap on ceiling prices of 600 products, as a rangeof solutions, including price registration and announcements, had not beeneffective. The difference between retail and wholesale prices has not exceeded15 percent.
Earlier, the MoIT refused to manage milk prices for children of less than six years old.However, Decree No 149/NĐ-CP officially handedover the responsibility to the ministry.
The MoIT said the Law on Prices stipulates that the MoF hadchaired and co-operated with relevant ministries, agencies and provincialpeople’s committees to monitor factors building prices for goods and servicesunder the price stabilisation list, including formula milk products forchildren less than six years old. This was the reason that the MoF shouldcontinue to manage the price, or co-operate with the Ministry of Health (MoH),to manage the products’ prices.
“The MoIT will continue to co-operate with MoF and MoH inimplementing State management on market development and distribution systems,including formula milk and othersupplementary dietary products for children less than six yearsold,” it added.
Basedon the realities of the operation and management of milk prices in recentyears, the Ministry of Finance recognized that the role of the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade was very important, from importing to trading milk in the market,because more than 70 percent of powder milk supply sources in Vietnam wereimported.
OnSeptember 10th, 2015, the Ministry of Finance sent a report to the Governmentreviewing past rules and practices on the management of milk products forchildren under 6 years old, and the need to transfer the task of managing theprice of milk products for children under 6 years old to the MoIT.-VNA
