Vietnam Plans No Petrol Price Hikes from July

The Vietnamese government has not yet approved any plan to raise retail petroleum prices from July this year, said Nguyen Cam Tu, Minister of Industry and Trade.

 

The ministry has also not submitted any draft on petroleum price management to the government for approval, the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper quoted Tu as saying.

 

Information about the ministry’s plans to hike petroleum price post by some local newspapers is not accurate and puzzled to people, the official attributed.

 

The ministry is looking for suitable solutions, he added, giving no further details.

 

Currently, Vietnam is facing a serious inflation threat, which soared 21 per cent in April from a year earlier; the Vietnamese government has demanded keeping local petroleum prices stable through this June and will continue subsidy for traders’ losses.

 

According to estimation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, gasoline traders are losing VND1,380 per liter of A92, VND3,097 per liter of diesel, VND2,446 per liter of paraffin and VND1,065 per kilogram of mazut, or averaging VND1 trillion (US$62.5 million) per month due to current global oil price.

 

Local analysts said the government should subsidize state petroleum traders by using funds sourced from crude oil exports.

 

Vietnam’s petroleum imports rose 70.2 per cent on year to US$3,956 billion in the Jan-Apr period, while its crude oil exports rose 46.2 per cent to US$3,496 billion during the same period. (HCM City Law)