Watchdog asks for stronger hand to investigate gas pricing

The chairwoman of the Competition Commission, Anna Wu Hung-yuk, today said the government should be more transparent and release information it has about fuel prices in Hong Kong, adding that the watchdog needs more powers to investigate whether prices are being fixed.

This comes as the Environment Bureau came under criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum at a Legco panel meeting over its failure to monitor fuel prices.

They questioned why an unprecedented drop in global oil prices isn't reflected in the cost of fuel here.

Wu said that when the watchdog carried out a study in 2017, some oil companies refused to provide price data, saying it is sensitive.

She said she believed that the government has more information than the commission has access to.

DAB lawmaker Holden Chow said the government had been complacent in dealing with the problem.

“I think the Competition Commission has been using their best endeavours to deal with the problem, but due to the lack of power to access some of the information, they failed to carry on with their investigation on price-fixing,” he said.

“I don’t see they put effort to facilitate the Competition Commission in dealing with this problem. So I don’t think they’re on the same page,” he said.

The Democratic Party's chairman, Wu Chi-wai questioned whether the government would intervene in what he described as an "unbalanced" fuel market.

The Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing told a meeting of Legco's Panel on Economic Development that prices had, in fact, fallen by a comparable level to those in Singapore.