The latest version of the Chinese central government’s pricing catalogue has dramatically reduced the number of items it contains.
On 16 March the State Council approved the amendments recently made by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to the Central Pricing Catalogue (2015 Edition) (中央定价目录).
The amended version of the catalogue reduces the number of items for which prices are set by nearly 30%, and is scheduled by implementation on 1 May 2020.
The Central Pricing Catalogue is a list of the pricing authorities and scopes of the relevant departments of China’s State Council.
The current version was published in 2015, and contains pricing provisions or guidelines for 20 types of commercial products and services across seven categories, including:
- Natural gas,
- Water,
- Power,
- Special medicines and blood,
- Key transportation services,
- Key postal services,
- Key professional services.
Following amendment the Central Pricing Catalogue covers 16 items and seven categories, including:
- Power transmission and distribution,
- Oil and gas pipeline delivery,
- Basic transportation,
- Water supply from major water projects,
- Key postal services,
- Key professional services,
- Special pharmaceuticals and bloods.
An NDRC spokesperson said the the latest round of amendments focused on:
- Deleting pricing items which in recent years had been made subject to open pricing, or for which fee collection had been cancelled;
- Highlighting monopoly segment pricing regulation, and market-based reforms of competitive segment pricing,
- Adjustments to pricing authorities based on institutional reforms.
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