Vietnam to Audit Petroleum Price Stabilization Funds This Year
The State Audit of Vietnam plans to audit petroleum price stabilization funds this year in order to clarify the funds’ capital and using, General Auditor Vuong Dinh Hue said on Jan 24.
The move comes after a fact that the state-owned Vietnam National Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex) who currently holds up to 60% of the domestic market share has been accused of misusing VND1.2 trillion ($60 million) worth of its petroleum price stabilization fund.
Petrolimex used money in the petroleum price stabilization fund to compensate for its losses in petrol trading instead of for the difference between the domestic retail prices and the imported prices.
In order to stabilize domestic retail prices amid the rising prices in the world market, the Ministry of Finance on Jan 14 decided to lower import tariffs on gasoline and diesel to zero, and on kerosene and fuel oil to 2% from Jan 15.
The MoF also decided to raise allocation rate on per liter of diesel for the petroleum price stabilization funds by VND600 to VND1,600 while keeping allocation rates of VND1,200 per liter of gasoline, VND1,200 per liter of kerosene, and VND700 per liter of fuel oil.
Vietnamese consumers are contributing VND300 per liters of petroleum products to the petroleum price stabilization funds. (vef.vn)
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