Debated in Parliament on 8 Jul 2013.
Mr Desmond Lee asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether he will consider introducing legislation that will allow the Government to impose restrictions or controls on commercial entities on the sale of certain goods during times of crisis, in order to prevent hoarding by companies and individuals, combat profiteering and to ensure that these items remain generally accessible to Singaporeans.
Miss Penny Low asked the Minister for Trade and Industry in view of complaints about steep increases in the price of essential goods like masks in the current haze environment (a) whether the Ministry is satisfied with current measures against unfair profiteering activities; (b) what action will be taken against errant merchants; and (c) how does the Ministry intend to strengthen unfair profiteering measures.
Mdm Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 24 and 25 together?
Yes, please.
The Control of Essential Supplies Act, which was enacted in 1973, provides the Government with the powers to control and ration the domestic sale of essential supplies during a crisis. The President may, by order published in the Gazette, declare any article or food to be a controlled article.
Page: 57
The Act was not invoked during the haze period, as the spike in PSI to unhealthy levels was for a relatively short duration. When the PSI went into the unhealthy range, there was a spike in demand from the public for N95 masks. The supply at the retailers was insufficient to meet the surge in demand and, as a result, some members of the public could not obtain the masks.
As the Minister for Health has explained earlier, MOH maintains a dedicated stockpile in preparation for a possible flu pandemic. This stockpile was subsequently released to retailers such as Giant, NTUC FairPrice and Watsons, to ease demand. MOH is now working on re-stocking the national stockpile levels so that we will be fully stocked, should there be an outbreak of pandemic flu in Singapore.
The Government has in place various channels for the public to provide feedback on issues and concerns related to this matter. For example, the Retail Price Watch Group (RPWG) keeps a watch out for excessive price increases of daily essential goods and anti-competitive behaviour. RPWG members come from both the private and public sectors, and include Mayors, business leaders from the retail sector, as well as officials from AVA, Competition Commission of Singapore and CASE.
In addition, CASE also serves as a key partner, providing feedback on issues faced by consumers and following up with businesses on consumer complaints. Consumers who come across unfair trading practices can report them to CASE. RPWG and CASE will continue to stay vigilant and take action when cases of profiteering come to their attention. Any substantiated reports of anti-competitive practice that come to Government's attention will also be referred to the Competition Commission of Singapore for investigation.
I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. The Government cannot conceivably stock up every item for every possible contingency. It would be useful to have certain powers to act quickly and decisively in the event of a run on certain essential items depending on the circumstances without having to invoke the Control of Essential Supplies Act which sends a very strong signal that it is a serious emergency. Would the Ministry consider including such provisions, say, in the Competition Act?
Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for raising this consideration. Essentially, our retail system provides a frontline of supply on items or essential items including, in this case, N95 masks. One point that perhaps has not been emphasised enough in a resilient supply system is for
Page: 58
households to continue to consider equipping themselves with N95 masks even as the haze has subsided. If every household has five, 10, 15 or 20, depending on the number of members in the family, then we would not have a situation where we have to urgently supply masks, however efficient our system, to every household in a very short period of time, which is in itself a difficult undertaking.
But I would add that the current Control of Essential Supplies Act is in place and the last time we used it was in the early 1980s for petroleum as well as for liquefied petroleum gas. So, in those circumstances, they were in the end revoked because the market had operated maturely and it was deemed unnecessary. The market itself was able to provide supply and price stability.
Thank you, Madam. I would like to direct my question once again back to the Minister for Health. Earlier on, I had asked two supplementary questions, I would like to thank him for his reply to question one. I do not know if I had missed it but I did not hear the reply for question two.
Madam, I had explained that our original advisory was to encourage our children to stay at home when the haze was bad. We noticed, having issued the advisory, the parents were using the masks for the children and, therefore, we reminded the parents that the masks were not designed for children.
Having said that, reiterating what Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has mentioned, that unlike the virus, the mask even if it is not 100% fitted provides some form of protection for the children. We wanted to make sure that parents understand that if the mask is not properly fitted, it does not provide 100% protection. So, it is still better for parents to keep their children at home. Therefore, we reminded the parents subsequently that the mask is not designed for children and to refer to our original advice that when the haze situation is bad, it is better for the children to minimise their exposure outdoors. So, I hope I have explained the sequence of events.
Mdm Speaker, a question directed back to MTI. I thank the Senior Minister of State for his responses earlier. We are an open economy and most of our prices are decided by demand and supply. But I am wondering if the MTI or related agencies would consider issuing an advisory on fair prices for certain essential items. For example, for the N95 mask, just to quickly paint a chronology of the prices. On Wednesday, in our constituency, we made an advance purchase for our cleaners as well as our People's Association staff. We found that the lowest price at an established
Page: 59
pharmacy at wholesale rate was $49. From the distributor, it was only $25. On Thursday, when we saw the second spike, the distributor was already sold out, established pharmacies were also starting to run out of stock and only supplying limited demand. A separate distributor was located for our low-income families in our rental flats —
Mr Yam, you may want to put the question.
Sure. The price was $75. Last Wednesday, the same distributor, price went down but it was $35. We want to ensure that there is some price stability, especially for essentials. My question is whether MTI would consider a set of advisories on what would be a fair price for certain essential items in cases of emergencies.
I thank the Member for his suggestion. The RPWG and CASE regularly publish prices of food items on our websites. The idea is, as the Member suggested, to provide some indication of the current market data. I would hesitate to describe them as guidance because, for a free and open market, there should really be competition and our vendors and retailers should strive to provide their goods at the best price. And also considering that there are different brands of N95 masks and the masks are sold at different locations, necessarily there is a price range, which is healthy. But the fact that it has shot up reflects the demand which is also an important signal to the wholesaler that there is such strong demand and they should replenish their stock quickly. Some of the dislocation in supply is not so much that the wholesaler or the main storehouse does not have the masks. It is purely logistics because they could not get the resupply run fast enough several times a day to reach their retailers and their store outlets. These are all lessons for learning. Going forward, we would consider the Member's suggestion.
PAPERCUTS