THE government will push ahead with price reforms of water, oil, gas, electricity and transportation, Xinhua reported late Thursday, citing guidance issued by the Cabinet.

    The government aims to “basically liberalize” prices in competitive sectors by 2017, Xinhua reported.

    The government has long considered proposals to reform a wide swathe of State-dominated sectors, with scrutiny mounting over the rigid pricing mechanisms that the government uses to regulate the oil and gas markets.

    An urgent fix is particularly needed for the natural gas market, analysts say, as flagging demand is threatening China’s push to use more of the fuel to lower emissions and fight pollution.

    The government has said it would also begin new pilot schemes to let power generators and users decide prices themselves and would expose power plants to more market forces.

    Prices for water would also be more market-driven in a bid to prevent waste, given rising shortages.

    Policymakers will choose an “appropriate time” for liberalizing fuel prices, the news agency reported, and will continue implementing the lowest price policy for rice and wheat.

    The document was jointly issued by the State Council and the Party, Xinhua said.

    Pricing reform has moved swiftly over recent years, with price controls over medicine, telecommunications and transportation relaxed.

    Last month, a State Council executive meeting decided to reduce the categories of items with government-set prices from 13 to seven, bringing the total number of items subject to price restrictions down from nearly 100 to 20.(SD-Agencies)