Petroleum enterprises are about to declare and decide their own prices

At the conference on January 16, Mr. Tran Huu Linh, Director of the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that a new Decree on petroleum business management will be issued, replacing previous regulations.

Accordingly, the operator plans to give operating rights and decide gasoline prices to businesses. The ministries and branches will only check, post-check and plan. The Ministry will issue a list of traders, regulate price declarations and coordinate with ministries and branches in managing the petroleum stabilization fund.

Mr. Linh noted that acts of not listing or declaring prices publicly will be severely punished when businesses are given the right to self-determination. At the same time, the operator will build a commercial infrastructure map application, based on data reported by businesses and traders to help consumers monitor price declarations.

“This map will determine the coordinates of 17,200 gas stations across the country. Through that, consumers can determine how many gas stations are around, where they are cheap, where there is gas left, or where to go,” he said.

This year, Vietnam targets double-digit growth. To respond, the Ministry of Industry and Trade assigned a minimum total petroleum supply of 31.7 million m3/ton. Accordingly, petroleum traders must ensure production and supply for the entire system.

“Enterprises must ensure uninterrupted supply, implement minimum total sources and mandatory reserves,” he said. In addition, he also noted that localities facilitate transportation and circulation, closely monitor supply and demand in the area, and check the compliance of businesses.

In particular, the supply needs to ensure the mixing and supply of E10 gasoline nationwide from June 1. This type of gasoline evaporates easily, turning into E7 and E8 gasoline with a lower ethanol ratio. Therefore, when compared according to regulations and standards, these evaporated gasoline will be “counterfeit goods”.

According to Mr. Bui Ngoc Bao, Chairman of the Vietnam Petroleum Association, businesses in the industry are very worried about technical regulation issues with biofuel. Mr. Bao said that being accused of selling fake goods in the event of a decline in ethanol rates would be “unfair to businesses”. He proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Science & Technology and competent agencies research and synchronize technical regulations and standards, taking into account the characteristics of this type of gasoline.

Regarding this, the representative of the National Measurement Standards Committee (Ministry of Science and Technology) said that this agency accepts recommendations from businesses and studies solutions in the future.

Last year, gasoline prices were adjusted 54 times, with alternating increases and decreases. By the end of the year, prices of all products decreased by 6-17% compared to the beginning of the year. Of which, E5RON 92 gasoline decreased by 8.1%; RON 95 lowered by 8.8%, diesel by 8%, mazut by 17.11%.