In the late afternoon on March 22, the Vietnam Ministry of Finance announced that petrol trading businesses are not to increase their petrol prices.
According to the Ministry of Finance, petrol businesses must continue to keep a close watch on world petrol prices. Measures to reduce transportation fees should also be implemented to ensure petrol supply is sufficient and meets consumers demands.
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| Petrol prices, if increased, would be a heavy burden for consumers. |
In the case where businesses are still affected by fluctuating world petrol prices and the extension time between two petrol price adjustment periods (according to official document 2729 of the Ministry of Finance) has already been postponed for too long, these businesses must inform authorities, as a solution would be found and implemented with the aim to stabilise petrol prices in Vietnam.
Subsequently, when world petrol prices in the market are reduced, Vietnam petrol businesses must drop their domestic petrol prices accordingly under government regulations.
According to the latest reports from Petrolimex (Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation) on March 19, current petrol prices are lower than its basic price VND 935 (4.9 cents USD) per litre; 0.05S diesel VND 733 (3.9 cents USD) per litre; kerosene VND 726 (3.8 cents USD) per litre and 3.5S mazut VND 350 (1.8 cents USD) per litre. All four products of Petrolimex are losing money.
It was reported that world petrol prices are fluctuating between USD 88 - 89 per barrel.
