Price monitor fights against high gas prices

Price regulator Stefan Meierhans (54) received 60 percent more reports from the public last year than the year before. It is not surprising that most reports related to prices and tariffs in the energy sector. According to Meierhans, the “record” number of citizen reports reflects the population’s “understandable” fear of inflation.

About 30 percent of the 2,368 citizen reports were received on this subject, Meierhans said on Monday when he presented his annual report. The healthcare price monitor received the second most reports (13 percent), followed by telecommunications (5.5 percent).

Fuel app announced

Due to the large number of reports from citizens, Meierhans adjusted its priorities in early 2022. He focused on oil and gas prices. He called on the gas companies to use reserves from previous years to dampen price increases. “Fortunately, these recommendations were heard in several cases,” summarizes Meierhans.

Meierhans appealed to the municipalities to refrain from tax-like taxes on natural gas so as not to put an additional burden on the gas bill. However, these are still collected in many places. On average, the price of natural gas increased by seven cents per kilowatt hour between January 2022 and last autumn. According to Meierhans, a large part of this increase is due to increased purchasing costs.

At the beginning of 2023, prices in international trade also fell sharply again, according to Meierhans. “I expect utilities to lower their prices as quickly as they raised them because of increased input costs.” A gas price comparison for the whole of Switzerland is available on the price monitor website and is regularly updated.

The price monitor announced a fuel price app a year ago. This should be achieved this year. This despite the fact that Touring Club Schweiz presented such an app in the autumn. This is intended to better control the sometimes very high margins of Swiss gas station operators. Meierhans sees the now launched TCS app as a partial success.

Enormous savings potential for laboratory analyses

In the healthcare sector, the price monitor last year compared the prices of the ten medical services that cause the most costs in Switzerland with those abroad.

He found that in 2020 Swiss rates for laboratory analyzes in medical practices were on average 4.5 times higher and in hospital and private laboratories on average 2.3 times higher than in other European countries. This provides health insurers with a potential saving of more than a billion francs, according to Meierhans.

He advised that in the future the rates for medical analyzes should be determined on the basis of foreign price comparisons. He sees a decision by the Ministry of the Interior to reduce the rates for laboratory analyzes by ten percent linearly from August 1, 2022 as a “first step in the right direction”.

In 2023, savings cards will also be available on public transport

The discounted public transport tickets are very popular. In 2023, several million will still be available to subsidize supersaver tickets in public transport. According to the price monitor, people with their own car have been able to get a discount on weekly and monthly parking permits in many municipalities. (SDA/sq)

Source:Blick