The Chinese government will takesterner measures this year to curb price violations in a bid to create a better environment for economic growth based on increasedurban and rural consumption.

Pricing departments across the country will carry out eight price-related inspections this year, covering such areas as electricity, public security, tourism, housing and real estate management, car purchases, education, agriculture, grain, and tobacco, said Wang Yang, vice-minister of the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), at a national price-related conferencebegun today in Fuzhou, capital of east China Fujian Province.

The SDPC urged pricing departments at all levels to set up price complaint organizations and improve networks to deal with price violation complaints.

China's pricing departments conducted 10 price inspections lastyear involving sugar, plane tickets, grain, rural electricity, medicines, charges on overseas-funded enterprises, expanded university enrollments, telecommunications, and the dumping of manufactured goods, Wang said.

These inspections uncovered 228,400 price-violation cases involving 2.7 billion yuan, he said, adding that large-scale inspections of this kind have proven effective for expanding domestic demand and promoting economic restructuring and development.