A number of textile and clothing enterprises in Jimo, East China's Shandong Province have diverted part of their production lines to make masks to ease the shortage of protective supplies in the nation. The local government is also helping to source raw materials, equipment and labor. Photo: CNSphoto

Chinese netizens on Wednesday criticized a local regulator's decision as being "stiff" after it punished a pharmacy for charging too high a price for face masks amid the battle against the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) that has killed more than 1,100 people and caused a shortage of protective items such as face masks.

The market regulator for Honghu, Central China's Hubei Province said on its official WeChat account on Sunday that it had fined a pharmacy 42,630 yuan ($6,115) for its pricing of face masks.

After an inspection, the regulator found that Huakang pharmacy had sold 38,000 masks at a price of 1 yuan ($0.14) for each one. Given that the cost per mask was 0.6 yuan, the WeChat account said, the pharmacy violated the rule that requires sellers not to set prices of protective products 15 percent higher than the cost price during the battle against NCP.

A user on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform in China, commented that the regulator had overreacted, saying that "according to the rule, even if the pharmacy set the price at 0.7 yuan, the pharmacy could still be punished."

Another user added that, "the price of 1 yuan at this time is a very honest price. What are they (the regulator) thinking?" While another user said, "can the regulator offer masks at a lower price than 1 yuan at this time?"

A user named Xiaolvguantianxia said the regulator should also consider other costs such as rent, transportation, storage and management costs, saying that with all the costs added, the profit from each mask could be less than 0.2 yuan.

In response to netizens' criticism, Honghu Administration for Market Regulation explained in a statement on Wednesday that the pharmacy had violated two rules. The first one is that there can be no price increase for epidemic-related medical supplies. And the second is that the purchase and sale price difference must not exceed 15 percent.

"At this crucial time, we will further stabilize the market prices to safeguard citizens," the local authority said.