PRICE INCREASES OF DAILY FOODSTUFFS (Committee of inquiry)

Mr Yeo Toon Chia asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider setting up a committee to inquire into the reasons for the increases in the prices of daily foodstuffs in recent months in order to ensure that the public are not cheated by market stall-holders and shopkeepers.

Mr Tang See Chim (for the Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, it is not proposed to set up a committee to inquire into the reasons for price increases in recent months. As I already explained in some detail on Friday, in Singapore where a substantial proportion of daily foodstuffs are imported, prices are subject to fluctuations in supply. For some items the price increases in December/January are seasonal, due to the festive season.

Where the main fluctuations in prices are due to such factors as mentioned above, a committee on prices cannot exert any influence on prices. This point was discussed by the then Minister for Finance [Dr Goh Keng Swee] in December 1968 when the same question was raised.

What is possibly more useful is the formation of a Consumers' Association to keep watch on price movements and to ensure that prices of essential foodstuffs are not manipulated by unscrupulous stallholders and shopkeepers and any such malpractices are detected and publicised. It is understood that there is a move for such an association -- the Consumers' Association of Singapore - to be registered. The Government, on its part, will give every assistance to the Consumers' Association and will do everything possible to curb unwarranted price increases.

There have been some remarks in Parliament regarding the reliability of official prices used in the compilation of the Consumer Price Index. A full list of the average retail prices of essential foodstuffs is published in the Monthly Digest of Statistics regularly and the study of fluctuation in the prices will clearly indicate that official prices do properly reflect price fluctuations experienced by the public.