The measures will be established in response to complaints from the independent retailers, who claim the superstores' unusually low prices are hurting them.

Tomorrow's meeting will also discuss the ministry's unsuccessful call for superstores to suspend their expansion plans for a while.

Siripol Yodmuangcharoen, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the department had submitted a draft of the Retail Act to Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet for consideration last week. Krirk-krai suggested the department amend some parts of the law to plug loopholes.

For instance, he said provincial authorities should not be empowered to make decisions that would lead to the approval of giant retailers' expansion plans. Krirk-krai said the Retail and Wholesale Supervision Committee should instead be empowered to approve retailers' branch-expansion or business-operation applications.

In Krirk-krai's view, empowering the committee - which is chaired by the commerce minister - to make final decisions, would avoid problems arising from inconsistency.

Small retailers complained they were hurting because superstores sold products for less than the cost of production. The ministry's guidelines stipulate that retailers cannot sell their goods at such prices except in certain cases.

Siripol also said the ministry might not extend its call for retailers to suspend their expansion for 30 days, which expires on Saturday. However, the government may find new measures to enforce against giant retailers to ensure fairness, the Internal Trade Department director-general said.