The Research About The Price Hearing System Of Public Utility

"Price Law of the PRC", which came into force on May 1, 1998, concludes price hearing system into the government price decision-making field, drawing the curtain for the price hearing system of the public utilities. In 2001, the former State Development Planning Commission issued the"Interim Measures for the government price policy hearing", specifying the provisions of price hearing policy. Since the implementation of price hearing system of the public utility in China, it has played a significant role in the process of formulating the price of the public utility, making a remarkable achievement. However, some problems should not be ignored, and we should reflect on them.The paper, taking urban water price hearing as an example, analyzes the price hearing system of Chinese public utility systematically and tries to conclude main problems in this respect. On the basis of current laws and regulations regarding to price hearing system, the author will present some solutions by combining some cases.Besides introduction and conclusion, the paper consists of four parts.In chapter one, the author presents some typical cases on price hearing system of the public utility, mainly on those related to urban water price hearing system. By introducing and analyzing some cases, the author analyzes main problems existed in the urban water price hearing system. From this perspective, the main problems of price hearing system of our public utility will be further reflected.Chapter two shows the significance and the basic contents of price hearing system of our public utility. The significance lies in that it is conducive to rationally use and protect water resources, to improve the capability of our government management, the openness and transparency of price decision-making behaviors as well as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. As for the basic contents, the author discusses them from aspects such as the scope of the hearing system, the hosting units of the price hearing and objects of soliciting opinions.Chapter three mainly points out the main problems of hearing system of our public utility, including the selection of representatives and its unreasonable staff structure, the problems of the time and frequency of the price hearing. Meanwhile, the procedure of price hearing is not open and transparent enough. The consumers are not eligible to voice out and the complete relief mechanism is still vacant. In chapter four, the author introduces briefly relevant laws and regulations of Chinese public utility, and compares related provisions concerning hearing system among different local governments. On this basis, the author suggests measures to improve price hearing system of our public utility such as defining clearly the way of selecting hearing representatives and refining staff structure, improving the openness and transparency of hearing procedure, revising regulations concerning the time and frequency of hearing, establishing relief mechanism of price hearing. Meanwhile, the consumers should be the subjects of price hearing.In the last part, the author summarizes the price hearing system of our public utility and gives a prospect of it. The price hearing system of our public utility has gained remarkable achievements, however, some problems exist and are urgent to solve. Besides, the government public management should introduce hearing system in other aspects to improve the capability of our government public management.