China made another stab at reining in inflation on Thursday by fining scores of retailers up to 500,000 yuan ($76,785) for cheating shoppers with bogus discounts or promotions. Laying bare its intent to stamp out price pressures - with inflation last clocked at a 32-month high - the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, urged officers in charge of monitoring prices to look out for other errant retailers.
"Checking prices over festivals and holidays are a crucial part of our present drive to stabilise prices," the commission said in a statement published on its website on Thursday. "Officers need to be conscientious in their checks and investigations." In its statement, the commission listed shops across China whose discounted prices were in fact above original prices, or who had advertised promotions that were never put in practice.
For instance, a shop in Shanghai was said to have sold a brand of female sport shoes for 576 yuan, which it said represented a 25 percent discount, even though the shoes were originally priced at 468 yuan, the commission said.
This is also not the first time that China is naming violators in an attempt to shaming them as a deterrent to other retailers. In January, it singled out French and US retail giants Carrefour and Wal-Mart and fined them for purportedly lying about the prices of their wares.
In the latest crackdown, shops were found to use deceptive pricing practices in the cities of Shenyang, Nanjing, Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Harbin and Taiyuan for an assortment of goods including pots, clothes and electric appliances. To track prices, Chinese officials usually visit shops before festivals and during bouts of inflation in the country.
It went a step further last week when it barred makers of liquor, food and other daily necessities from raising prices. Yet despite the Chinese government's concerted campaign against inflation, which spans from interest rate rises to direct price controls and tighter regulation of the property market, prices are still rising in China, and at a faster clip. China's inflation ran at an annual rate of 5.4 percent in March, and is widely expected to accelerate in coming months to as high as 6 percent.