FTC chair to attack price manipulations

The FTC has set up anti-monopoly and anti-price manipulation task forces to monitor fluctuations of commodity prices, and the task forces are investigating prices of Chinese traditional sundry food products to prevent fluctuations, at a time when the Chinese New Year holiday is approaching.

Wu made the remarks at a ceremony during which he formally took over as new FTC chairman after serving as acting chairman for six months.

In case shops are found engaged in price manipulations in the run-up to the Chinese New Year holiday, which starts on Feb. 14, they will face a maximum fine of NT$25 million, according to Wu.

Vice Premier Eric Liluan Chu last month asked government agencies to do their best to ensure that the prices of basic commodities such as rice, sugar, soy beans, maize and vegetables remain stable ahead of the holiday that marks the start of the Year of the Tiger on the lunar calendar.

In related news, state-run CPC Taiwan Corp. announced yesterday that its sales prices for natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas will remain unchanged in February, so as to ease the financial burden on over 50 percent of domestic household and restaurants, although the company originally planned to hike the natural gas price by 8.07 percent or NT$1.2 per cubic meter to reflect its costs.

Meanwhile, although the CPC could slightly cut the price for liquefied petroleum gas by NT$0.25 per kilogram in line with the declining international oil prices, the firm has also decided not to reduce its sales price, mainly because it has absorbed NT$3.52 in cost increases on its own without passing them onto consumers.

Also yesterday, Taiwan Sugar Corp. announced that it will not raise domestic sales prices of sugar products through the entire month of February, in line with the central government's efforts to stabilize local commodity prices during the Chinese New Year holiday.

At the moment, Taisugar offers discounted sugar price at NT$30 per kilogram, which leads to a retail market price of NT$31-NT$32 per kilogram.

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