Though there has been no official information about a price hike, many petrol stations have used a variety of excuses to stop services in hopes of making higher profits in the near future.
A petrol station in Gia Lam District because of "broken machines"
One of the most popular excuses used in the Hanoi suburbs and neighbouring provinces was "power failure" and "out of fuel". Many of those still in operation only have one employee on duty in order to limit the amount of sold fuel.
Nguyen Thanh Phuc, Deputy Head of Danang City's Market Control Department, said they would tighten control over the activities of petrol stations, carrying out inspections to see whether their excuses to not sell petrol are legitimate or not.
One petrol station in HCM City complained that wholesalers were not providing a steady supply of fuel.
Previously, petroleum companies, including Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex), Dong Thap Petroleum Trading Company (Petimex), Saigon Petro Company and PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOIL) asked the Ministry of Finance for a price adjustment.
Even though their request did not ask specifically for an increase or decrease in price, Tran Ngoc Nam, Deputy Head of Petrolimex said they were incurring losses.
"We want to know whether to increase retail prices or continue using the price stabilisation fund to support enterprises in this difficult times," Nam said.
Nguyen Tien Thoa, head of the Price Management Department at the Ministry of Finance, said enterprises were under pressure because world demand has surged, leading to a 2% to 3% increase in the world price. The supply has also decreased recently because many plants have temporarily closed for maintenance.
A number of international organisations have also forecast that fuel prices will continue to increase.
"We should reduce the import tax to 2% while using price stabilisation fund to support enterprises, while slightly increasing the fuel price by VND300-400," Thoa said.
