Ministers to check markets for rising prices of goods
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered ministers overseeing business to get first-hand details on retail prices of food and other necessities due to more complaints over rising living costs.
Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom will visit fresh food markets in Chiang Mai, while Deputy Commerce Minister Bhumi Saraphol will take a trip to Min Buri market in Bangkok.
Deputy Premier and Finance minister Kittirat Na-Ranong will visit On-Nuj fresh mart in Bangkok, while Deputy Finance Minister Tanusak Lekuthai will go to a big market in Bangkok Noi.
Other Cabinet ministers will visit fresh markets in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan.
The premier previously blamed last year’s massive flood as a major reason for higher prices of food and necessities.
Yesterday she said her government would try to boost incomes for people to solve this problem, while admitting that oil and other energy prices had to go up with market forces.
Last year’s huge flood, which hit several provinces in the central region hard, has led to shortages of some products, resulting in higher prices.
However, she said that while prices of some raw materials had dropped, energy prices remained high, pushing up transport costs and retail prices.
To boost people’s income, she said the government implemented rice mortgage and related schemes, while raising the minimum wage to Bt300 per day and the entry-level salary for college graduates who join the government to Bt15,000 per month.
The government also extended free public bus and train services for low-income earners.
On energy prices, she said, the government could not counter market forces – it had to reduce state subsidies. However, price adjustments would be gradual to minimise impacts on consumers.
For liquefied petroleum gas or LPG, used for cooking, the price would stay unchanged till the end of the year, but the transport sector would have to pay more for LPG.
The opposition Democrat Party said Yingluck had missed the point in
tackling the soaring price of food and other necessities. Spokesman Chavanont Intarakomalsut said it made no sense for the premier to blame nature as a major cause of more expensive goods.
