Authorities put price gougers on notice
Police warn of harsh penalties for anyone taking advantage of lockdowns to cash in
Mainland authorities have vowed to crack down on practices such as price gouging or hoarding during the pandemic.
A statement published on the Ministry of Public Security’s website yesterday said anyone who took advantage of crises like the Covid-19 outbreak to make money would be dealt with strictly.
A recent announcement of mass testing in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, where most of the capital’s cases have been reported, prompted residents to rush to stock up on food and daily necessities in case of a wider lockdown.
On Monday the municipal commerce bureau ordered supermarkets and online shopping platforms to triple their usual inventories and extend their working hours to meet soaring demand.
The Beijing municipal government announced on Monday that it would expand Covid-19 mass testing from one district to another 11 districts by Saturday.
A prolonged lockdown across much of Shanghai has prompted complaints from residents that they were running out of food and that online delivery platforms were unable to meet demand.
The public security ministry said it would strike hard against illegal practices such as interfering with epidemic prevention and controls or disrupting the market and social order.
It added that the authorities should offer help to people who were in a difficult or dangerous situation.
The municipal police department in Shanghai issued a similar notice on April 15, in which it said profiteers should be dealt with in accordance with the law, and if the violation constituted a crime, they would be investigated.
The Shanghai police told the state news agency Xinhua that at least one person had been taken into custody on suspicion of illegal business operations.
The person, surnamed Gao, rented someone else’s business licence to set up an online platform, which was used to sell vegetables, eggs, chicken and other foodstuffs at inflated prices, making him an illegal profit of 1.5 million yuan (HK$1.8 million), the report said.
Shanghai’s market supervision bureau said last month that it had issued about 20,000 warning letters against price-gouging and violators could be fined up to 3 million yuan. For serious cases, the bureau could suspend or even revoke their licences, according to a report from state broadcaster CCTV.