China to continue resource products pricing reform: official

BEIJING, Dec. 10 -- China will continue resource products pricing reform next year to promote energy saving and emissions reduction while efforts would be made to guarantee that people's livelihood not affected by price fluctuations, a senior economic planning official said Thursday.

Pricing reform concerning water, electricity and natural gas, as well as reform of environmental protection fees would be carried out in a positive and steady manner, said Peng Sen, vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the national economic planning agency.

The grain minimum purchase prices would be raised steadily next year, and supervision over the implementation of preferential policies on various fees would be strengthened to rationally guide market expectations and create a favorable pricing environment for economic development, Peng told a national meeting gathering local pricing authorities.

Peng urged local pricing authorities to improve management overprices of products that have direct bearing on people's livelihood, intensify supervision over medicine prices and standardize the order of property pricing.

Price supervision should be stepped up in the educational and health care sectors, and efforts would be made to enhance anti-monopoly law enforcement, Peng said.

"Reform should be pushed forward in a positive and steady way to maintain stable price level," he stressed.