A customer shops for powdered milk at Coop Mart Supermarket in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Concerned government agencies have applied a price ceiling on 538 milk products for children under six years old, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The move came three months after the agencies applied Government measures to stabilise the products' prices, said ministry officials.

Last June, the Government approved the ministry's proposal for a price ceiling on the products and viewed it as one of the measures needed to control prices.

The ministry reported that with the regulation, the prices of the milk products had so far fallen by 0.3 to 34 per cent.

Most cities and provinces have organised delegations to inspect the price cap implementation and found that most traders and producers have obeyed. Also, the businesses have registered the prices of these products with State offices in line with existing regulations.

In cases of violations, the inspection delegations imposed nearly VND62 million (US$2,910) in fines on offenders.

To better implement the regulation, the ministry required concerned agencies in cities and provinces to continuously supervise the price cap implementation and make a monthly report on it to the ministry.

Besides instructing customs, tax and price management agencies to determine price caps, the ministry will also continuously co-ordinate with the Ministry of Health to scrutinise and add more milk products to the list.

According to Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of the ministry's Pricing Management Department, the cap will be maintained till June 2015, and the ministry will submit a summary report on it to the Prime Minister.

The cap could be removed after June if the milk market stabilises. However, if the market remains bad, the ministry will ask the Prime Minister to extend the cap's implementation. — VNS