An inspector delegation from the Ho Chi Minh City departments continued investigation on prices of commodities in the city’s price stabilization program on Monday.

They examined 14 shops belong to the companies joining the program and those producing steel, fertilizer, milk and building materials.
In October, the delegation punished 47 violated cases and issued a total fine of VND95 million (US$5,000) for breaking price regulations, taking the tally to 329 cases and VND1.1 billion since the beginning of the year.
The HCMC Department of Finance has asked 150 companies producing commodities like steel, milk, cement and gas, to enumerate and register their prices, said the department official Nguyen Quoc Chien.
In case the prices they registered are not suitable, the department would ask the businesses for adjustment. Failing to do that, the department will issue them fines and revoke their businesses licenses.
To stabilize market prices, the city People’s Committee has ordered departments and districts coordinate together to monitor the prices from now to the lunar new year.
They should timely handle cases speculating goods to increase the prices, it said.
The people’s committee also tasked the city’s Market Management Department to build a plan on investigating and monitoring the domestic market before and after the Tet holidays. They should concentrate on handling cases trading fake, expired and unhygienic and unsafe goods.