Research On The Price Regulation Of The Water Industry In Dongying City

In recent years,regulatory reform has been made in the natural monopoly industries around the world,and people are becoming more aware that,under the traditional regulatory system,tightly restricting and overreaching of the natural monopoly industries has led to a lot of problems,which hinders realization of the optimal supply target.According to the characteristics of different natural monopoly industries,a number of new reforms have been introduced in many developed countries,where mature practical explorations have been performed.The Report of the 18 th National Congress of the CPC has expounded the necessity to deepen reform of the price of resource products and further give full play to the basic role of the market in resource allocation;and the 3rd Plenary Session of 18 th CPC Central Committee also made important deployments to reform of the price of resource products.The price mechanism reform in power,natural gas,refined oil and other industries has also opened the door to reform of the price regulation in natural monopoly industries in China.As tap water is of a typical natural monopoly industry,it is of rich theoretical and practical value to research urban water-supply industry for the price regulation in natural monopoly industries.Based on the water supply industry in Dongying city,coupled with many years of experience in price regulation,this paper analyzes substantial causes why there are defects in the regulation of natural monopoly industries and the response measures through analysis of status and problems in the industry price regulation.The paper is composed of five chapters.Chapter I describes the purpose of the research,theories based on which to research the urban water supply price regulation and its practical significance,and briefly expounds research results both in China and abroad as well as research contents and methods of this paper.Chapter II introduces two basic concepts: natural monopoly industries and price regulation,and on the basis of public choice theory,incentive theory of regulation and contemporary public management theory briefly analyzes several methods for price regulation: marginal cost pricing,Ramsey pricing,investment return price regulation method,and price cap regulation method.Chapter III,from water resources status,water supply enterprises,regulation sectors and other aspects in Dongying city,presents problems in the present situation of tap water price regulation in Dongying city: there are still problems in the water price regulation policy,fixing a price of tap water lacks of scientificity and standardization,price regulation institutions bears mono-function with insufficient ability for regulation,and there is no perfect water price regulation mechanism involving the public.Chapter IV studies experiential practices taken in foreign developed countries to reform the tap water industry price regulation: America has no common regulation institution,each state does not interfere too much on the water supply industry,and the enterprises set the price based on supply-demand relationships and market rules;privatization in UK covers a wider range,but the price fixed by water supplier companies is still prohibited to be higher than the highest price set by the government;in France,the water price standard is determined through negotiation between management institutions and users in each basin.Chapter V puts forward countermeasures to improve the price regulation of the tap water industry: determine the price level of urban water supply scientifically,improve the water price structure,gradually rationalize the water price system,optimize supporting policies for urban water supply price regulation and promote comprehensive market-oriented reform under the premise of reforming management systems of water supply enterprises.Improvement of the price regulation of the water industry must be based on the actual local and industrial conditions.With many years of work experience in the price competent sector,by studying interrelated thesis published in the last ten years both at home and abroad around the price regulation,I have proposed measures to improve the current work situation of price regulation and promote development of the water industry in Dongying city: on the one hand,efforts must be made to complete the current price regulation policy,complete the information disclosure system,improve cost supervision method and make the hearing system public;on the other hand,regulation must be relaxed appropriately to introduce social capital and competition factors,to make up for the deficiency in price regulation by marketization.