Ministry of Industry and Trade: Businesses need to reduce commodity prices based on gasoline

At the Government’s regular press conference on July 4, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said the overarching goal is to ensure sufficient petroleum supply in all situations and regulate prices to harmonize the interests of the State, businesses and consumers.

According to him, the petroleum market is still guaranteed supply, and domestic selling prices are currently maintained at a low level. However, he said that the price level of many goods has not decreased proportionally even though fuel costs have gone down.

“If the increase in commodity prices is explained by the price of gasoline, then when this commodity decreases, it must also be adjusted proportionally,” Mr. Tan said, and said that businesses and traders need to eliminate the mentality of “persistently maintaining unreasonable prices”.

According to the Deputy Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked localities, businesses and traders to review price levels and adjust them in accordance with developments in input costs. Along with that, market management forces at the central and local levels are assigned to increase inspection and handle price violations such as not listing, selling without listing, hoarding goods or keeping unreasonable prices.

Recently, market management forces have handled many price-related violations and will continue to promote this work.

He also advised businesses to strictly implement regulations on declaration, listing and selling at the right price. According to him, businesses need to proactively review cost structures to reduce prices when input factors decrease, and not take advantage of market fluctuations to increase or anchor prices.

For consumers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends monitoring official information, not buying to hoard according to crowd psychology, and promptly reporting to market management forces if they detect sales higher than the listed price, hoarding or speculation.

Also at the press conference, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said that the prolonged heat from April to June caused electricity demand to spike, continuously setting new records. On June 24, the entire system’s power output reached about 1.2 billion kWh and the maximum capacity exceeded 57,537 MW, both higher than the peak in 2025. However, the power system still ensures safe and stable supply thanks to maximum mobilization of hydropower, thermal power, gas, renewable energy and imported sources.

According to Mr. Tan, when electricity demand increases, the system’s backup capacity, especially in the North, tends to decrease because most of the power source has been exploited at a high level. However, the system is still maintained within the safety threshold to respond to incident situations.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is reviewing and updating Power Planning VIII in the direction of improving the safety of the system, giving priority to supplementing the base power source for the North. At the same time, the operator plans to accelerate transmission grid projects, replace behind-schedule projects and add sources with quick deployment times such as solar power and energy storage systems (BESS).