The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislative body, is expected to review China's first anti-monopoly law by June this year, according to an expert.

If all goes to the plan, the long-anticipated law is likely to debut next year, Wang Xiaoye, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told a seminar yesterday.

The anti-trust code will regulate monopoly agreements, abuse of dominant market status and big mergers in many quasi-monopoly industries, including energy, telecommunications, railways and aviation.

Wang is working with the State Council's Legal Affairs Office to revise the draft which was completed last March.

"The Legal Affairs Office has put the law at the top of its agenda for this year," said Wang. "There is a big chance the law will debut next year. We can see some light at the end of the tunnel."

At yesterday's seminar, several economists lambasted Sinopec, China's second-largest State-owned oil firm, for abusing its monopoly position.

The economists, mainly from Unirule Institute of Economics, said Sinopec coerced private petrochemical firm Maohua Shihua into "unfair agreements".

According to documents provided by the economists, Sinopec unilaterally raised the prices of raw materials to Maohua Shihua well over the market price since September 2003 when Beijing Yuetai, a private real estate company, became the largest shareholder in Maohua.

Sinopec provides 80 per cent of the raw materials to Maohua.

After Maohua refused to pay the extra charges, Sinopec suspended its supplies last October, forcing Maohua to cease production.

"The philosophy of the monopolized State-owned companies goes like this: It is my turf. Anyone who infringes on it will be badly beaten up," said Zhang Weiying, an economist from Peking University.

Zhang Shuguang, another renowned economist, said large State-owned companies like Sinopec make profits simply by exploiting their monopoly status.

"The problem is that monopolizers are making money at the expense of the interests of the society as a whole," said Zhang.

Sinopec was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The seminar was hosted by Unirule Institute of Economics, an influential non-governmental organization.

(China Daily February 28, 2005)