Special Provisions On Penalties For Price Violations During Abnormal Fluctuations In Market Prices (Draft For Comment)

Recently, the website of the national development and Reform Commission announced the special provisions on the punishment of price violations during the period of abnormal market prices.

Recently, the responsible person of the national development and Reform Commission interviewed reporters, and explained the legislative background, main features and related contents of the special provisions.

Why should we formulate special provisions?

A: according to the State Council's deployment, recently, the national development and Reform Commission and the local price authorities at various levels have intensified efforts to improve the price order of agricultural products, and investigated and exposed a number of typical cases.

In our inspection, we found that although the price legislation has made great progress in recent years and realized that there is a law to follow, the existing laws and regulations of price supervision and inspection can not fully meet the needs of regulatory work during the period of abnormal price fluctuation.

First, the punishment is not enough to educate and discipline the law.

Two, law enforcement procedures do not meet the needs of regulatory work during abnormal price fluctuations.

In the period of abnormal price fluctuations, in order to stop and effectively investigate price violations in time, it is necessary to simplify the law enforcement procedures and strengthen the inspection methods on the premise of ensuring the fairness of procedures.

Three, the object of punishment is limited to the operators, which is not conducive to strengthening the supervision of other market participants.

Other units and individuals outside the operator may also engage in fabricating or distributing information about price hikes. However, according to the existing price supervision laws and regulations, the object of punishment is only limited to the operator. This problem should be solved through the formulation of the special provisions.

In addition, the definition of behavior such as price increase needs to be further refined. Therefore, it is necessary to work out a special regulation in the light of the particularity of price regulation in the period of abnormal price fluctuation.

Two. Where is the special provision "special"?

Special provisions relative to General Provisions refer to special procedures and penalties for special conduct in special times.

Specifically, the special provisions have the following particularity compared with the general price supervision laws and regulations: first, they apply only under special conditions.

General price laws and regulations are applicable to supervision under normal conditions, while special provisions apply to periods of abnormal price fluctuations.

The two is targeted at specific offenses.

The existing price supervision laws and regulations, such as the "price law" and "Regulations on administrative penalties for price violations", have made a comprehensive provision for all kinds of illegal activities, while the special regulations only deal with malicious acts such as malicious hoarding, driving up prices and collating prices.

Three, punishment is different.

Compared with the current price regulation laws and regulations, the special provisions have increased penalties for price violations.

Four, the enforcement procedure is special.

In order to stabilize the abnormal fluctuation of market prices and safeguard the rights and interests of consumers and public interests, the special provisions emphasize more timely and effective enforcement procedures, thus simplifying part of the law enforcement procedures and increasing the necessary enforcement measures.

Three, how to understand the start procedure of the special regulations?

In order to prevent the abuse of regulations and damage the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant market participants, the special provisions specifically stipulate the start-up procedure, that is, only when the market price of important commodities and services fluctuates violating, and may have a major impact on the lives of the people and the production of enterprises, the State Council's price departments or the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government may agree to apply the special provisions to investigate and punish the price violations.

In this sense, the special provisions are in a state of readiness in the general period. Only after meeting the statutory requirements and authorized by the authorized organs, can the price departments at all levels initiate the special regulations and enforce the law in accordance with the law.

It should be pointed out that the important commodities and services mentioned in the second provision of the special provisions generally refer to those goods and services that are closely related to the development of the national economy and the people's lives, and the specific judgments shall be made by the competent departments in charge of the State Council and the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.

Four. What kinds of violations are stipulated in the special provisions?

The special provisions stipulate four kinds of illegal acts which are more common during the abnormal fluctuation of market prices, and elaborate the legal elements of each type of illegal acts on the basis of the original laws and regulations.

The first is to fabricate information about price spreading.

The two is malicious hoarding.

Under normal circumstances, it is entirely up to the operator to decide how much goods to be stored and when to sell them.

However, if the market is in tight supply and the price fluctuates, if the operators enter more or sell less, only enter or sell, or refuse to sell, they will further reduce the market supply, push up the price and hurt the interests of consumers.

Therefore, if the operator's behavior constitutes malicious accumulation, he shall be punished according to law.

The three is to drive up profits and make profits.

During the abnormal fluctuation of market price, the business activities of operators should bear some social responsibilities as well as profits.

Therefore, the "special regulation" requires that when the market price fluctuates in an abnormal way, the difference between the production and sale price of the operator and the sales price shall not exceed that of the normal period.

The four is collusion of price increases.

Only in a fully competitive market environment can operators have the internal driving force to increase production efficiency and reduce costs, and consumers will be able to get good quality and inexpensive products.

Operators collude to raise prices, exclude and restrict normal market competition, and harm the rights and interests of consumers, which are expressly prohibited by law.

Collusion in the period of abnormal fluctuations of market prices is more dangerous. Therefore, the special provisions provide special provisions for collusion in price increase.

Five, what aspects of the special provisions have increased penalties? {page_break}

First, the special provisions raise the amount of fines for various offenses.

If there is no illegal income in collusion with the increase in price, the amount of fines will be raised from less than 100 thousand yuan to less than 1 million yuan, raising to less than 200 thousand yuan or less than 2 million yuan.

Fabricating the behavior of distributing price information and malicious hoarding, and without illegal gains, the amount of fines is raised from less than 50 thousand yuan to less than 500 thousand yuan, raising to less than 200 thousand yuan or less than 2 million yuan.

In addition, the amount of fines has been raised from 50 thousand yuan to 200 thousand yuan for refusing to provide relevant materials or providing false materials.

Secondly, the principle of heavy punishment is reaffirmed.

Third, the introduction of criminal responsibility.

The special provisions clearly stipulate that price violations seriously disrupt the market order and constitute a crime and shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

Six, which aspects of the special provisions have been investigated and dealt with promptly?

Summing up the experience of price regulation in the special period such as SARS and earthquake relief, the special provisions have made necessary simplification of the law enforcement procedures for price supervision and inspection according to law on the premise of ensuring procedural fairness.

For example, according to the regulations, if circumstances are urgent and need to stop and investigate price violations immediately, the case may be decided on the spot.

That is, the law enforcement officers can directly investigate the case found suspected of having serious violations of the law, and report to the responsible person in charge afterwards.

Moreover, it is often very difficult to find out the specific amount of illegal income for enterprises whose paction records and accounting books are not sound. In order to stop and investigate illegal activities quickly, the special provisions provide that the illegal gains can not be calculated or difficult to calculate, and they can be punished according to the law without any illegal gains.