Domestic petrol prices to be kept stable in April

Petrol prices on the domestic market will remain stable in April thanks to the price stabilisation fund.

Local petrol businesses claim that they are currently facing substantial losses on the bck ò global market gains. According to the Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex), on March 31, the retail price of A92 petrol was 6.5 percent lower than its production costs, while that of diesel oil reached US$88.38/barrel, or 6.1 percent lower than what it cost to produce. As a result, Petrolimex businesses are suffering an average loss of nearly VND1,000/litre.

The Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance has introduced two key measures to stabilise domestic petrol prices. The first is to maintain the retail prices of oil and petrol and use the price stabilisation fund to compensate local businesses for their losses. The second measure aims to increase the retail prices of oil and petrol at a certain level while using part of the price stabilisation fund.

The first measure will be applied if the global oil price in the next 30 days falls to less than US$87/barrel. If the price continues to rise to above US$90/barrel, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will implement the second measure. These two measures will be used instead of reducing the import tax by 5-10 percent as previously proposed by local businesses.

At present, the price stabilisation fund is estimated at VND1,500 billion.

In the first three months of this year, domestic petrol prices were adjusted four times due to fluctuations on the global oil market.

Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Van Hieu said that his ministry issued a document on April 1 asking local businesses not to increase their petrol prices. The Ministry of Finance also proposed that the Prime Minister extends the time between the two adjustments to 30 days instead of the current 10 days.

Tags: Vietnam petrol, Vietnam petrol market, Vietnam Petrol prices