Vietnamese customers are longing for the first petrol price fall in the year following the recent governmental approval, local media said.
An oil trading agent said oil traders, all state-owned, have to wait for permits from ministerial agencies for the change in the pump price.
Bui Ngoc Bao, deputy general director of Petrolimex, said, “We have not received any instructive idea from the Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as any document related to the import tariff on petroleum products. Thus, we have no grounds to set new selling prices.”
“We only heard the approval of the Government for the reduction in petrol price on media,” he said, adding that his company, which holds some 60 per cent of Vietnamese petroleum market share, will obey all pricing instructions from government.
Vuong Dinh Dung, director of Military Petroleum Co., added that although the world oil price is on the fall, the low-price batches will arrive at Vietnamese ports in one or two weeks. Hence, oil traders are not actually made high profit as reported by local media.
Oil traders, which are reportedly enjoying VND800 profit on every liter of petrol sold, incurred VND600-billion loss in the first half this year.
The Vietnamese Treasury is subsidizing oil price, not petrol price.
Currently, the petrol price is sold at VND11,400-12,000 a liter, depending on the octane grade, while diesel oil is sold at VND7,800 a liter.
Deputy Finance Minister Tran Xuan Ha said Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industry and Trade have asked oil traders to reduce the petrol pump price as soon as possible, which is expected to go down by VND500 from today.
The Vietnamese government expected the decline in petrol price will lend a boost to controlling the soaring inflation in the country, which reached 6.19 per cent in the first seven months this year.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said Vietnam will need 13.3 million tons of petroleum products to feed its energy demand in 2007, up over 20 per cent on year, including 4 million tons of petrol.
Nearly all petroleum products consumed in Vietnam are imported because the country lacks major refining facility. The first refinery, Dung Quat, is scheduled for operation in early 2009. (Tien Phong, Vnexpress)
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