Don't let your salary go to waste!

To avoid the situation of "price, wait for salary" when there is a salary increase policy, strengthening price management and operation measures plays an important role.

The basic salary increased by 30% and some new adjustments in salary policy were applied from July 1. (Illustration)

The 30% increase in basic salary and some new adjustments in salary policy applied from July 1st are bringing great joy to many people but also the worry of price increases.

In fact, in the past few days, some essential goods have started to increase slightly in price. Some people are worried that if prices are not well managed, the “price movers” will run too fast compared to the “salary movers” and the familiar saying “price, wait for your salary” from a few decades ago will repeat itself.

The issue of “water-splashing” according to salary is also a “hot” issue at the National Assembly forum. Many National Assembly deputies have proposed solutions to overcome this situation.

In fact, the number of people receiving salary increases this time is not very large because according to statistics at the end of 2023, the whole country had about 2.78 million cadres, civil servants, and public employees (excluding the armed forces) receiving salary increases. In addition, there are nearly 3.4 million people receiving monthly pensions and social insurance benefits from the Social Insurance Fund and 1.8 million people receiving social pension benefits from the State budget. Thus, the number of cadres receiving budget salaries only accounts for a few percent of the population, not large enough to create real pressure to increase prices. The core problem creating pressure to increase prices is due to psychology and the exploitation of "loopholes" to increase salaries to unreasonably increase prices.

Therefore, according to many National Assembly deputies and economic experts, the important and urgent solution at this time is for state management agencies to step up inspection and supervision to promptly detect violations of competition law, collusion in indiscriminate price increases, affecting the market. In particular, checking price formation factors, not allowing salary increases to lead to unreasonable price increases, losing the meaning of salary increases, affecting the lives of workers. In particular, it is necessary to inspect and control, especially with essential food items, price listing at traditional markets... Resolutely and strictly handle violations of price laws.

In order to ensure the significance of the wage increase policy from July 1, last weekend, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed and issued Official Dispatch No. 61/CD-TTg to Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Government agencies; Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities on strengthening measures to manage and operate prices.

Accordingly, the Prime Minister requested ministries, according to their assigned functions and tasks, to urgently review, report, and propose a specific roadmap with the level and expected time of price adjustment of goods and services under their management (medical examination and treatment services; electricity; education services, etc.); closely coordinate with the Ministry of Finance, the General Statistics Office and relevant agencies to carefully assess the impact on the consumer price index and specific inflation control targets and scenarios, and report to the Prime Minister before June 30, 2024.

The Prime Minister also assigned the Ministry of Finance to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the State Bank of Vietnam, the General Statistics Office, relevant agencies and localities to promote the implementation of the work of synthesizing, analyzing, forecasting market prices, updating detailed, specific and timely price management scenarios for the remaining months of the year to advise the Government and the Prime Minister on appropriate and timely measures; ensuring the target of controlling inflation in 2024 in accordance with the Resolution of the National Assembly.

Along with price control, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities not to allow shortages or disruptions in supply that cause sudden price increases such as: for gasoline, food, construction materials, etc.

The Prime Minister also assigned relevant ministries and branches to strictly handle cases of spreading false information that causes confusion among consumers and destabilizes the market.

Economists say that, if speculative psychology is excluded, wage increases are not the main and direct cause of increased inflation. Therefore, to avoid the situation of “prices, wait for wages”, strictly implementing the Prime Minister’s directive is very important at this time. Authorities need to intervene immediately to prevent the price of goods and services from increasing. Service and product providers also need to consider before deciding to increase prices because they may not be able to sell their goods and violate the law.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/dieu-chinh-muc-luong-co-so-dung-de-te-nuoc-theo-luong-276428.html