State-owned gasoline trading companies in Vietnam were estimated to lose more than VND6 trillion (US$375 million) in the first ten months of this year, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The figure is estimated to escalate to around VND12 trillion (US$750 million) by the end of this year if the global oil price continues standing at over US$90 per barrel, warned the ministry.
The Vietnamese government pledged to compensate for all the losses to stabilize domestic prices to curb the soaring inflation, said the ministry, adding that the compensation disbursement, however, reached only VND2.3 trillion (US$143.75 million) between January and October.
The compensation stagnation, which was triggered by cumbersome administrative procedures, has put local gasoline traders in a dilemma to raise capital for their continuous trading, experts said.
With small purse-strings, the traders are facing difficulties in importing more gasoline for domestic trading, which results in local supply scarcity, they added.
Associate Professor cum Doctor Ngo Tri Long from the Academy of Finance assessed that it is high time Vietnam raised gasoline retail prices in the circumstance that the global oil prices hook nearly US$100 per barrel.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry emphasized the indispensable trend to tie local gasoline prices to the world market but under an appropriate roadmap to ensure sufficient fuel supply for daily life and production in the near future.
Currently, gasoline traders in Vietnam are enduring a loss of VND1,500 per liter of A92 gasoline, VND3,600 per liter of diesel, VND3,500 per liter of mazut, and over VND4,000 per liter of paraffin.
A92 gasoline is now priced at VND11,300 per liter, up only 1.6 per cent on year, which is rather lower than the increases of between 4.8 per cent and 10.5 per cent in the world market, leading to trans-border gasoline trafficking. (Trade, VietNamNet)
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