We can't just keep making empty appeals!
(Baonghean) - There's one issue that's been discussed repeatedly but still hasn't changed. That is, when gasoline prices fall, the prices of other goods, especially transportation fares, refuse to decrease. Recently, the Minister of Transport himself had to speak out in the press, stating that if necessary, a boycott of transportation companies that don't lower fares could be organized.
This action demonstrates the government's determination in dealing with transport companies that are stubbornly refusing to lower freight rates. However, it also reveals the helplessness of state agencies in the face of the transport companies' indifference. Unable to implement strong, coercive administrative measures, they resorted to a "boycott" campaign. The question here is: why do state agencies have to accept such a powerless stance?
The reason is that road transport fares are determined by market mechanisms. State management agencies in this field respect the right of organizations and individuals to set their own prices and compete on price according to the law, so they cannot intervene through administrative orders. The State only intervenes in prices that fall under the category of price stabilization as stipulated by the Government. According to Government Decree No. 177/2013/ND-CP issued on November 14, 2013, the State's price regulation activities include: price stabilization, price setting, price negotiation, and inspection of factors forming prices... However, transport fares are not subject to price stabilization, so state agencies cannot intervene. This leads to the ironic situation of accepting powerlessness because they must comply with the law. From this, we can see that, until now, many people have been clamoring for everything to follow the regulatory laws of the market, opposing the State's intervention in the market through administrative measures.
Because of the lack of intervention, the reality is that over the past six months, gasoline prices have dropped sharply by 39% (from 25,640 VND/liter to 15,670 VND/liter), but taxi fares have only decreased by 3-9%. Recently, many businesses have even proposed increasing fares by 20-60%. This is because we have not yet built a true market economy, so there is no healthy competition among businesses. Therefore, for their own self-interest, they collude with each other to avoid lowering prices. Only now do we see the importance of the "state's price regulation hand." And only now do we truly understand why our Party and State are so determined to implement a socialist-oriented market economy; it is so that when necessary, the State can still intervene in the market in a way that benefits the people.
In reality, transportation costs are always a crucial component of product and service prices, so people are always concerned about and closely monitor every development and fluctuation in transportation costs. Therefore, government regulation of this type of price is essential. The shortest and most effective way to dismantle the "fortress" of transportation costs is to add fixed-route transportation, bus, taxi, and freight transportation fares to the list of price-stabilized services so that price management agencies can closely monitor and stabilize transportation costs when needed. Strong, mandatory administrative measures are required. Simply appealing to price adjustments will yield no results!
Duy Huong
