The petroleum stabilization fund has a surplus of more than 6,000 billion VND

Data from the Ministry of Finance shows that the management agency used about 9.7 billion VND from the Petroleum Stabilization Fund in the third quarter of this year and allocated nearly 29.3 billion VND to this fund. Enterprises with positive stabilization fund balances received 3.2 billion VND in interest during the period. Meanwhile, this unit with negative funds has to pay interest of 5.9 billion.

Thus, by the end of September, the Petroleum Stabilization Fund had a surplus of more than 6,061 billion VND, down about 18 billion compared to the previous quarter. Of which, Vietnam Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) accounts for more than half, nearly 3,079 billion VND. This is also the key enterprise holding nearly 50% of the domestic petroleum retail market share.

In addition, Saigon Petro has 328 billion VND, Military Petroleum nearly 300 billion, Dong Thap Petroleum 460 billion, Thien Minh Duc 467 billion VND… On the contrary, the largest enterprise with negative funds is PVOIL, more than 138 billion VND. . Some other units also have negative funds such as Binh Minh Petro, Truong An, and Tan Nhat Minh.

In fact, from October 2023 until now, the authorities have stopped appropriating and spending the Petroleum Stabilization Fund. Compared to the end of 2023, this fund balance will decrease by nearly 600 billion VND. According to a representative of the Price Management Department (Ministry of Finance), this decrease is mainly due to some businesses such as Hai Ha Petro, Xuyen Viet Oil, and Pelio Group Joint Stock Company no longer being the focal point for petroleum trading. Therefore, the authorities do not announce the stabilization fund money of these businesses, because the money has been transferred and paid into the budget.

The Petroleum Stabilization Fund was established under Decree 84/2009 of the Government on petroleum business and later amended decrees (Decree 83 and 95). This fund is not included in the state budget balance, because 36 key petroleum enterprises collect and spend their own money and manage it in their bank accounts. The level of appropriation and expenditure will be decided by the management agency at each operating period.

However, this leads to the risk of businesses misappropriating funds. The conclusion of the previous Government Inspectorate said that 7/15 petroleum dealers used the Price Stabilization Fund for the wrong purpose, did not transfer money to the fund account but left the business payment account in the future. many periods before refunding the amount of VND 7,927 billion. Three key enterprises, Hai Ha Petro, Thien Minh Duc Group, and Xuyen Viet Oil, had their files transferred to the investigation agency to review and handle violations related to fund use.

In particular, Xuyen Viet Oil was accused of causing a loss of 219 billion VND from the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund, while Hai Ha Petro owed the fund about 612 billion VND. Currently, these two enterprises have not yet submitted the fund balance to the budget, according to a representative of the Price Management Department (Ministry of Finance).