Petrol prices in Vietnam have not yet sufficiently matched world prices, said Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue.
Hue admitted at a National Assembly’s meeting on October 31 that the country had raised petrol prices far more than price cuts.
He explained that this is the result of Decree 84 which stipulated price adjustments for a 30-day period. When global petrol prices sharply increased, the government had to cut import taxes to support petrol traders.
“For a long time, we have maintained petrol import tax rates at zero percent and used the petrol price stabilisation fund. When the global prices fall, it’s time for us to offset this by applying price cuts lower than the latest price hikes,” Hue noted.
He said that the government had assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to co-ordinate with the Ministry of Finance and related agencies to amend and supplement Decree 84 on petroleum trading.
Last year, the State Audit of Vietnam had audited and made public the petrol price stabilisation fund. This year, the agency has conducted comprehensive inspection and auditing over the state-owned Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex).
He proposed the NA and the NA’s Standing Committee consider assigning the NA’s Economic Committee or the NA’s Finance and Budget Committee to co-ordinate with the NA’s Council of Ethnic Groups and other NA’s committees to conduct a comprehensive inspection over price management, especially petrol prices in 2013.
The move is aimed to point out possible shortcomings and work out solutions to improve the efficiency of price management, he added.
Petroleum traders have applied five price cuts with a combined value of VND3,200 (USD0.15) per litre but six price hikes with a total value of VND6,050 (USD0.29) per litre since the beginning of this year.
Currently, a litre of 92 octane gasoline is sold VND23,650 (USD1.13).
