Most Chinese teenagers have no memory of the harsh times when coupons were used to buy meat, clothes, cooking oil and grain. They hear the stories from their parents and have little connection with a lifestyle in which almost every essential commodity is in short supply.

With prices rising sharply, and early signs of an inflationary economy arousing concerns nationwide, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top price regulator, announced in mid-January temporary measures of state intervention on prices of grain, cooking oil and meat in a move to curb excessive price hikes.

Zhu Yulie, a lawmaker with the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, recently suggested reinstituting the coupon system to help low-income citizens cope with soaring prices.

Officials responded saying that the market economy is regulated by market forces, and subsidies to poor families on pricing disparity may ease the problem, but could not eliminate it in the long run.

Those against the move questioned the effectiveness of the coupon system, saying that the current economic situation facing China is substantially different from that of decades ago. They point out that inflationary pressure prompts a rapid rise of prices, which is not caused by short supply.

Nevertheless, problems concerning how to define the list of commodities and people to whom the coupons are given are still not tackled. Neither is the determined proportion between market-driven and mandatory pricing for convenience of exchanges settled. Additionally, worries about coupon forgery and monopolies are emerging.

A good idea

Bi Shicheng (Modern Express): The so-called coupon system is suggested to grant basic living conditions for the poor.

Last November, a tragic stampede took place in a Carrefour outlet in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality during a sales promotion. Most of the injured and dead were reportedly laid-off employees, migrant workers, and even handicapped. Through the event, we may understand how much pressure these poor families are under, particularly in price-hiking season. And food coupons, as a way of subsidy, may assist them to pull through these tough times.

Li Bin (Information Times): Based on theories of the progressive conception of history, the evolution progresses along a linear pattern, meaning that the future is always more progressive. Obviously, the reinstitution of a coupon system that was abolished 15 years ago doesn't accord with this theory.

We may notice that Zhu Yulie's proposal is brilliant in that it aims to ensure essential supplies to low-income people, rather than a deviation from the market economy. A special fund is suggested to be set up, at the provincial level, for stock, and when inflation occurs, the government can issue coupons to subsidize the poor.

Coupons were used to control consumption in the old days as a result of low productivity and resource scarcity. While today's coupons will be social benefits for the poor in the form of a subsidy.

Deng Qingbo (www.xinhuanet.com): The reinstitution of a coupon system during this inflationary period is a possible way to achieve a balance between market economy and government regulation, though results need to be examined in practice. An absolute free market is not omnipotent, as has been proved. The low-income group can be easily impacted by economic fluctuations. That is why administrative intervention is needed to increase the supply of necessities for their survival.

In the shift from a planned economy to a market-regulated one, the role of government is changing to one of service-orientation, integrity and accountability. When business entities are authorized by more autonomy in some sectors where administrative departments withdraw, they are obliged to take on more challenges that the government should take care of. Once again, the government is called to check continuous price hikes, granting essentials to the low-income group to help them get through difficulties.

Wang Pan (Yangtze Evening Post): Coupons are also used by capitalistic economies as a way of macro control. In the United States, however, the poor are entitled to get free coupons issued by the government in exchange for food.

And today's coupon system is very different from those issued under a rigid state-planned economy, which includes all commodities and covers the whole nation. This reinstitution initiative is only to subsidize low-income people against mounting consuming pressure.

Both strategic grain and oil reserves and the implementation of a ration-coupon system are tools used to ensure unbroken food supplies.

Coupons won't curb price hikes

Peng Yongbin (Changjiang Times): The proposal on the reinstitution of a ration-coupon system is facilitated by the establishment of a reserve system that can be the source of the coupons. The low-income group can use the coupons in exchange for essentials to ease market demand and thus curb excessive price increases.

In fact, low-income residents were financially subsidized by state budgets in a bid to strengthen their purchasing power. Stocks of grain, cooking oil and meat will ensure full supplies to the market, in addition to monetary subsidies to the poor that enable them to buy. But the structural conflict between supply and demand has not yet been completely resolved by coupons.

Food coupons are in effect no different to cash subsidies, but will be given out via more complicated procedures. Moreover, it probably hurts market enthusiasm and is not beneficial to boosting consumption and production.

Since 2004, the U.S. Government has replaced traditional coupons with electronic ones out of consideration for slashed market forces by administrative manipulation.

Zhu Sibei (www.qq.com): The so-called food coupon system was a byproduct of the old state-planned economy that featured short supply of almost everything. Now, in a period of affluence and prosperity, the problem is how to lift the nation from pricing difficulties and to improve the livelihood of its people.

On one hand, food coupons are not able to eventually alleviate people from poverty, caused by incomplete social welfare networks, unfair competition, deficiencies in supervision and soft macro control policies.

On the other hand, the issuance of coupons is of no help to ease inflationary pressure or to hedge survival risks of the poor. It seems that as the market economy develops, social resources are more centralized into the hands of a small group, and thus the wealth divide becomes larger. The best solution to lift the poor from crunching pressure can never be coupons, but rather lowering reform costs shared by financially vulnerable residents and implementing more public welfare programs.

Xu Guangmu (www.china.com.cn): A general increase in commodity prices is largely attributable to strained supplies and soaring costs. As a regular pattern of the market economy, prices fluctuate with supply and demand changes. The price control due to lack of macro adjustments might be effective to stabilize the market by cutting demands in the short term, but it may trigger other problems.

More importantly, the restoration of a ration-coupon system will be of little help to finally curb excessive price hikes. Apart from substantial rises in costs, the imbalance between supply and demand, and monopolies by resource-oriented enterprises should be partially factored in to the present price concerns. In a move to raise profit levels, these enterprises are manipulating prices without considering the impacts on the national economy or the public's affordability.

He Fang (China Youth Daily): The ration-coupon system that commonly used in a state-planned economy cannot be coordinated with market economy that features free pricing. And the latter is capable of doing self-corrections in a free environment, where market forces dominate.

It is historically proved that, intangible market rules can usually be more effective than tangible adjustments made by man, since a market mechanism is more responsive and intelligent.

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Editor: Yao Bin