A number of petroleum wholesalers have been seeking the Ministry of Finance’s approval for an increase of VND1,400 on petrol and a rise of VND600-800 per litre of oil.
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| Traders propose another petroleum price hike |
The Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petroleum) did not disclose its proposal, but is in the process of adjusting their prices.
Under the Government’s Decree 84, adjustments to the base price of petroleum in the country are taken from the average world price over 30 days.
A representative from a petroleum wholesaler in the south said that his company is selling petroleum products at VND,1000 per litre lower than the base price of A92 petrol, VND800 per litre of kerosene, VND700 per litre of diesel and VND600 per kilogramme of mazut. Based on world market prices over 10 days, the company is suffering from losses of VND1,700-1,800 per litre of A92 petrol and VND1,000-1,100 per litre of diesel.
Petroleum wholesalers also said that world oil prices have sharply increased to around USD128 per barrel on August 8, jumping from USD110-117 per barrel in July. In addition, the Dung Quat Oil Refinery has halted operations for technical problems, leaving the local petrol business to seek out supplies from other sources, such as Singapore, South Korea, China, Taiwan and the Middle East, despite the world petroleum price hikes.
If the Ministry of Finance approves the proposal in the next two days a petroleum price hike will be inevitable.
The most recent petroleum price hike was on August 1. So far this year, petroleum products have been adjusted nine times, four increases and five decreases. The total in increases in the price of petrol were VND4,300 per litre, with decreases amounting to VND3,200 per litre.
