A former railway official in China's central Hunan Province has
been prosecuted for collaborating with ticket touts and making
undeserved money.
Luo Zhongxing, a former railway station manager in Huaihua City,
was suspected of using his power to reserve tickets for illegal
scalpers.
A train ticket during the Lunar New Year holiday rush has for
years proven a hot commodity in China. Scalpers, some of whom have
special connections within the railway system, often buy up tickets
that they re-sell for great profit.
Across China, the worst winter storm in five decades has
prompted governments to fight profiteering and maintain market
order.
In the worst-hit Hunan Province, the local price bureau on
Sunday issued an order demanding restaurants to keep their profit
margins within 60 percent after it received complaints of price
increases.
On Friday, the price bureau in the neighboring Guangdong
Province also imposed a ban on profiteering by hotels and inns
along the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, a key north-south trunk
road.
The hotels and inns were told not to charge customers prices
higher than those before Jan. 23 or they would face "severe
punishment".
The bureau said the price ban would be stopped when the disaster
ended.
In Jiangxi Province, a local telecom company promised not to
stop services to mobile phone users who were in default of fees, so
as not to cause trouble to the disaster relief work.
A restaurant in the southwest Guizhou Province was fined 50,000
yuan (about 7,000 U.S. dollars) on Saturday over an unauthorized
price increase of one yuan for each serving of noodles.
The restaurant, located in downtown Guiyang, capital of the
mountainous province that has suffered snow, sleet and subsequent
power and water shortages over the past three weeks, raised its
noodle price to seven yuan without approval of the local price
bureau.
"The local price regulations ban businesses from raising prices
in times of natural disasters," said Bi Jin, an official in charge
of market supervision at the city's price bureau.
The winter weather crisis has hit 19 areas and driven up costs
of food, cooking oil, fuel and other necessities. The worst is
still not over, the Central Meteorological Station said on
Saturday.
As bad weather threatens to last into the Year of the Rat, the
price bureau in eastern Zhejiang Province said it had dismissed
several supermarket requests for price increases.
"We insist that prices for milk and instant noodles should
remain stable now and during the Chinese New Year holiday," bureau
head Wang Jiahui said.
He forecast price increases for most vegetables starting on
Sunday as several greenhouses had collapsed under the weight of the
snow and ice.
An unprecedented snowfall starting on Saturday left an average
of 30 centimeters of snow in most parts of the province. In some
areas, the snow was 60 cm deep.
At least 70 restaurants in Xi'an, capital of the northwestern
Shaanxi Province, vowed on Saturday they would not raise prices for
food, beverages and service during the weeklong holiday starting on
Wednesday.
The promise was well received by residents, many of whom were
planning to dine out during the holiday.
(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2008)
