The Consumer Council has also such other duties and functions as carrying out research studies, testing of products, public education programs and publishing, apart from handling complaints, investigating and facilitating mediation services in the interest of consumer protection.

As the watchdog body for consumer rights, Connie Lau said the Consumer Council also volunteers to alert consumers of trading malpractices and proposes to the government its views on consumer protection policies.

In 2007 for instance, the Consumer Council found that several banks closed many of their branch offices, causing very big inconvenience to the elderly and underprivileged people, as they had to walk a long way to other districts to obtain banking services.

Recently, she attended a Legislative Council panel meeting, speaking of their efforts to urge textbook publishers to debundle the prices of teaching and learning materials from the prices of textbooks to allow teachers, parents and students to buy what they need.

She also recalled that when inflation was rather rampant and prices were high in 2008, the government allocated resources for the Consumer Council to carry out a range of ad hoc price surveillance services to enhance the transparency of prices for the comparison of the consumers.

The services included: weekly price surveys, an online price watch bulletin and daily wet market reports.

In the weekly price surveys, the Consumer Council price-checking team will check the prices of 40 popular food items and sundry goods from about 20 sales outlets, including supermarkets, drug stores and chain stores.

Through the online price watch bulletin, consumers will find out the prices of about 500 items sold at the online shops of four supermarkets, as well as the price trends for five consecutive days.

From Mondays to Fridays, the prices of 16 fresh food produces on sale in two districts (two large wet markets in each district) are compared and announced on radio, TV and the Consumer Council website.

"We always compare prices of chain supermarkets and non-chain stores," she said. "This is a very useful instrument that changes the buying pattern of the consumers, because the prices at the non-chain stores are much lower."

These price surveillance services will be ongoing, she said, until the government says there is no need to continue when prices stabilize.

As auto fuel is being monopolized by a handful of companies in Hong Kong, the Consumer Council launched an interactive auto fuel price calculator in February 2009 to inform drivers of the fuel prices of different oil companies, as well as the names and addresses of the cheapest fuel stations.

(HK Edition 02/26/2010 page4)