Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) yesterday made inspection trips to “low-price supply areas” at six hypermarket and supermarket chains to show the government’s concern over rising prices.
Chiu’s trips drew criticism from some consumers at the venues, who said that he was just “doing it for show,” but Chiu said he was “promoting the government’s policies to [stabilize commodity prices.]”
Flanked by a flurry of reporters, Chiu completed his first stop on yesterday’s itinerary, a Carrefour hypermarket on Chongqing N Road, in less than 20 minutes, spending just five minutes inside talking about prices.
While some consumers at the store shouted at Chiu, telling him not to “put on a show,” some consumers said Chiu had expressed his concern about the price problem.
“As an official, I can’t just sit in the office all day. For problems concerning the public and consumers’ interests, I have to explain the government’s policies to them in person,” Chiu said.
Figures from the Executive Yuan’s Director General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed that Taiwan’s consumer price index rose 4.96 percent last month, the second highest growth rate in the last twelve years.
The 3.7 percent rise in the core consumer price index, which excludes some fruits, vegetables, and fresh fish but includes oil products, was the biggest in the last twelve years, the DGBAS said.
Early last month, the Cabinet arranged for six hypermarket and supermarket chains to establish “low-price supply areas” within their stores to offer 10 basic commodities: rice, flour, vegetable oil, eggs, milk powder and milk, instant noodles, soy sauce, toilet paper, shower gel and shampoo.
The six participating chains are Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福), RT-Mart (大潤發), Far Eastern Geant Co (愛買), Wellcome Supermarkets (頂好超市), Sungching (松青超市) and Chuan Lian Centers (全聯福利中心).
After his visit, Chiu said that the prices offered in the “low-price supply areas” were “reasonable” because some of the items were 50 percent to 70 percent cheaper than in other places.
Chiu said the supermarkets and hypermarkets had helped the government maintain price stability.
It was understandable that businesses would raise commodity prices in view of international factors, but businesses should not engage in hoarding or price manipulation, he said.
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