Circular No. 08/2017/TT-BCT dated June 26, 2017 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on prescribing the registration and declaration of prices of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children

CIRCULAR

Prescribing the registration and declaration of prices of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children[1]

Pursuant to the June 20, 2012 Law on Prices;

Pursuant to the June 14, 2005 Commercial Law;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 177/2013/ND-CP of November 14, 2013, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Prices;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 149/2016/ND-CP of November 11, 2016, amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 177/2013/ND-CP;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 95/2012/ND-CP of November 12, 2012, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade,

The Minister of Industry and Trade promulgates this Circular prescribing the registration and declaration of prices of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children as follows:

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.Scope of regulation

This Circular prescribes the registration and declaration of prices of milk products for under-6 children (below referred to as milk products); declaration of prices of functional foods for under-6 children (below referred to as functional foods). The list of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children shall be issued by the Ministry of Health.

Article 2.Subjects of application

1. Traders of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children.

2. Competent state agencies in charge of price management.

Chapter II

PRICE REGISTRATION

Article 3.Subjects of price registration

1. Milk producers and importers shall make price registration with competent state agencies in accordance with this Circular during the period the State implements price valorization by the measure of price registration.

2. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall publicize the list of traders making price registration who are capable of affecting the formation and fluctuation of prices nationwide.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall, on July 1 annually or in special cases, review the list of traders making price registration and publicize the adjustment of this list.

3. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall publicize the lists of local traders making price registration, except those on the list publicized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

On July 1 annually or in special cases, provincial-level People’s Committees shall review and publicize the adjustment of the lists of local traders making price registration.

Article 4.Registered prices

1. Milk producers and importers shall register recommended retail prices and promptly notify these prices to distributors of their products.

2. Traders’ retail prices shall be posted up and must not be higher than the registered recommended retail prices.

3. Registered recommended retail prices serve as a basis for price registration-receiving agencies and competent state agencies to perform state management of prices and publicize them to consumers.

4. Milk producers and importers may register different recommended retail prices suitable to each geographic area.

Article 5.Price registration

1.  A trader shall fill in a price registration form and send it to a state agency competent to receive the form by one of the following methods:

a/ Directly submitting 2 copies of the form at the office of the form-receiving agency (enclosed with a stamped envelope bearing the name and address of the trader and full name and telephone number of the trader’s responsible person);

b/ Sending via the official correspondence channel 2 copies of the form (enclosed with a stamped envelope bearing the name and address of the trader and full name and telephone number of the trader’s responsible person);

c/ E-mailing the form bearing the e-signature or a scanned copy of the form bearing the signature and seal to the e-mail address notified by the form-receiving agency, or faxing the form and concurrently sending via the official correspondence channel 1 original form to the form-receiving agency for filing.

2. The price registration form is provided in Appendix 1 to this Circular.

Article 6.Receipt of price registration forms

1. Process of receiving a form directly submitted

a/ In case the form is completely filled in and has sufficient copies as prescribed, the form-receiving agency shall affix an incoming-mail stamp showing the date of receipt and return one copy to the trader;

b/ In case the form is incompletely filled in or has insufficient copies as prescribed, the form-receiving agency shall write down the reason for returning and contents to be supplemented and immediately return it to the trader.

2. Process of receiving a form sent via the official correspondence channel or e-mail

a/ In case the form is completely filled in and has sufficient copies as prescribed, the form-receiving agency shall affix an incoming-mail stamp showing the date of receipt and send back by post 1 copy to the trader;

b/ In case the form is incompletely filled in or has insufficient copies as prescribed, within 2 working days after receiving it, the form-receiving agency shall send a notice via the official correspondence channel or by fax or email, requesting the trader to completely fill in the form or send additional copies.

Article 7.Examination of price registration forms

1. Examination of a price registration form focuses the following details:

a/ The date of application of the registered prices;

b/ The specific price table;

c/ Expense items forming the prices;

d/ Explanations about the price adjustment;

dd/ The reasonability of price-forming elements.

2. Within 5 working days after receiving the valid form specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, if the receiving agency makes no request for explanation about the registered details, the trader may apply the registered prices.

3. In case the reasons for price adjustment stated by the trader are unreasonable or not related to the increase or decrease of goods or services prices, within 4 working days after receiving the form, the receiving agency shall send via the official correspondence channel or by fax or email a notice stating the reason and requesting the trader not to apply the registered prices.

4. For the case specified in Clause 2 of this Article, the time limit for the trader to explain and send written explanations and supporting documents is 10 working days counting from the date the form-receiving agency sends a written notice requesting the trader to explain.

5. The time limit for the form-receiving agency to look through the explanations is 4 working days from the date of receipt shown on the incoming-mail stamp affixed by the form-receiving agency. Past the time limit, if it makes no request for further explanation, the trader may adjust prices according to recommended prices and adjustment time.

Article 8.Competence to receive and examine price registration forms

1. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall receive and examine price registration forms of traders on the list issued by the Ministry.

2. Provincial-level Departments of Industry and Trade shall receive and examine price registration forms of traders on the lists publicized by their provincial-level People’s Committees. When necessary, provincial-level People’s Committees may authorize district-level People’s Committees to receive and examine local traders’ price registration forms.

Chapter III

PRICE DECLARATION

Article 9.Subjects of price declaration

1. Traders of milk products and functional foods shall declare their prices to competent state agencies under regulations when the State does not apply the measure of price registration.

2. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall publicize the list of traders making price declaration who are capable of affecting the formation and fluctuation of prices nationwide.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall, on July 1 annually or in special cases, review the list of traders making price declaration and publicize the adjustment of this list.

3. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall publicize the lists of local traders making price declaration, except those on the list publicized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

On July 1 annually or in special cases, provincial-level People’s Committees shall review the lists of local traders making price registration and publicize the adjustment of these lists.

Article 10.Declared prices

1. Producers and importers shall declare retail prices recommended for distributors of their products.

2. Traders’ retail prices shall be publicly posted up. In case distributors’ retail prices are higher than the recommended retail prices declared by the producers or importers, these distributors shall declare their retail prices to competent state agencies.

3. Recommended retail prices serve as a basis for price declaration-receiving agencies and competent state agencies to perform state management of prices and publicize them to consumers.

4. Producers and importers may declare different recommended retail prices suitable to each geographical area.

Article 11.Price declaration

1. A trader shall make a price registration form and send it to the form-receiving agency by one of the following methods:

a/ Directly submitting 2 copies of the form at the office of the form-receiving agency (enclosed with a stamped envelope bearing the name and address of the trader and full name and telephone number of the trader’s responsible person);

b/ Sending via the official correspondence channel 2 copies of the form (enclosed with a stamped envelope bearing the name and address of the trader and full name and telephone number of the trader’s responsible person) to the form-receiving agency;

c/ E-mailing the form bearing the trader’s e-signature or a scanned copy of the form bearing the signature and seal to the e-mail address notified by the form-receiving agency, or faxing the form and concurrently sending via the official correspondence channel 1 original form  to the form-receiving agency for filing.

2. The price registration form is provided in Appendix 2 to this Circular.

Article 12.Receipt and examination of price registration forms

1. Process of receiving a form

a/ In case the form is completely filled in and has sufficient copies as prescribed, the receiving agency shall affix an incoming-mail stamp showing the date of receipt on the copies, and return 1 copy to the trader;

b/ In case the form is incompletely filled in or has insufficient copies as prescribed, within 2 working days after receiving it, the receiving agency shall notify via the official correspondence channel, by fax or e-mail to the trader the contents to be supplemented.

2. Within 5 working days after receiving the notice of the form-receiving agency, the price declarant shall completely fill in the form and submit sufficient copies to the form-receiving agency.

3. In case of declaring a reduced price, a trader shall immediately apply the reduced price, and concurrently send a price registration form to the form-receiving agency according to the process prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article.

Article 13.Competence to receive price declarations

1. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall receive price declaration forms of traders on the list of those required to declare prices at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

2. Provincial-level Departments of Industry and Trade shall receive price declaration forms of traders specified in Clause 3, Article 9, and traders specified in Clause 2, Article 10, of this Circular who have registered their businesses in the localities. When necessary, provincial-level People’s Committees may authorize district-level People’s Committees to receive and examine price declaration forms of local traders.

Chapter IV

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS IN PRICE REGISTRATION AND PRICE DECLARATION

Article 14.Rights and responsibilities of agencies receiving price registration forms and price declaration forms

1. Agencies receiving price registration forms and price declaration forms have the following rights:

a/ To use registered prices for the purposes of analyzing, summarizing and forecasting developments of market prices and building the database on prices;

b/ To examine price-forming elements and publicize them in the mass media to serve the state management of prices;

c/ To examine price declarations; when necessary, request price declarants to report on the declared prices when there are fluctuations in price-forming elements to serve the state management of prices;

d/ In case retailers are required to make price declaration, the form-receiving agency may request them to report on expenses that make the actual retail prices higher than the recommended retail prices declared by the producers or importers.

2. Agencies receiving price registration forms and price declaration forms have the following obligations:

a/ To implement the regulation on receipt of price registration forms and price declaration forms of milk products and functional foods from traders;

b/ To ensure confidentiality of registered or declared prices of traders until such prices are allowed to be applied;

c/ To inspect and supervise the products’ selling prices on the market against the registered or declared prices.

Article 15.Rights and obligations of traders making price registration and price declaration

1. Traders who make price registration and price declaration and other traders have the following rights:

a/ Producers and importers may decide by themselves recommended retail prices for milk products and functional foods to end users under the current law on prices;

b/ When adjusting prices by no more than 5% of the previously declared or notified prices, to notify the price adjustment using the form provided in Appendix 3 to this Circular instead of making price declaration. In case multiple adjustments make the prices higher than 5% of the previously declared or notified prices, traders shall make price declaration under this Circular.

2. Traders who make price registration and price declaration have the following obligations:

a/ To make price registration and price declaration in accordance with law and this Circular, and take responsibility before law for the accuracy of the registered or declared prices;

b/ To post on their websites or announce in the mass media the registered or declared prices and publicize their adjustment within their distribution systems;

c/ To send written notices of their distribution systems to competent state agencies assigned to receive price registration forms and price declaration forms, made according to the form provided in Appendix 4 to this Circular;

d/ To take responsibility for the quality of their milk products and functional foods nationwide;

dd/ To submit to the inspection and supervision by state management agencies in charge of price registration and price declaration.

3. Other traders have the following obligations:

a/ To publicly post up their selling prices under law;

b/ To sell milk products and functional foods under Articles 4 and 10 of this Circular

Chapter V

ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

Article 16.Responsibilities of state management agencies

1. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall:

a/ Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with functional agencies in, monitoring the developments of the milk market and, when there is an extraordinary development, propose milk price valorization measures according to its competence to the Government;

b/ Receive and examine price registration and price declaration forms under this Circular;

c/ Sum up and publicize information on recommended retail prices which are registered or declared by traders on the Ministry’s portal, and coordinate with local state management agencies in charge of milk products’ and functional foods’ prices in supervising the registered and declared retail prices;

d/ Examine and supervise producers and traders of milk products and functional foods for under-6 children in the Vietnamese market;

dd/ Annually or in special cases, examine and publicize the list of traders making price registration at the central level, and publicize the adjustment of this list;

e/ Periodically or irregularly, examine and inspect the observation of the law on prices by traders of milk products and functional foods under this Circular.

2. The Domestic Market Department shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related agencies and units in, performing the tasks specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall:

a/ Publicize the lists of local traders making price registration and price declaration;

b/ Specifically assign the competence to examine and supervise and receive  price registration and price declaration documents in their localities;

c/ Implement Articles 3 and 9 of this Circular with regard to traders making price registration or price declaration in their localities; when necessary, decentralize the receipt and examination of price registration and price declaration documents and  price notices in localities;

d/ Examine and supervise traders of milk products and functional foods according to their management competence;

dd/ Report on the prices which are registered or declared by local traders at the provincial-level Departments of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Industry and Trade;

e/ Coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in supervising the traders’ application of retail prices of milk products and functional foods to consumers.

4. Provincial-level Departments of Industry and Trade shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with specialized agencies of provincial-level People’s Committees and related local agencies in, performing the tasks specified in Clause 3 of this Article.

Article 17.Effect

1. This Circular takes effect on August 10, 2017.

2. Within 30 days after the effective date of this Circular, producers and importers shall send written notices of the list of recommended retail prices of products which are currently on sale but do not have recommended retail prices to state agencies competent to receive and examine price declaration documents.

3. Any problem arising in the course of implementation should be reported to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for study and proper amendment and supplementation.-

For the Minister of Industry and Trade
Deputy Minister
HO THI KIM THOA

* The appendices to this Circular are not translated.