Vietnam Continues Slashing Petroleum Prices upon Global Fall

Petroleum traders in Vietnam have decided to continuously cut domestic retail price by between 3.03 per cent and 7.69 per cent per liter depending on goods categories in the wake of the global import price tumble to US$72/barrel of gasoline October 17, said Vuong Thai Dung, deputy general director of state-owned Vietnam Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex).

 

From 01:00 pm October 18, a liter of A92 gasoline was discounted VND500/liter or 3.12 per cent to VND15,500/liter, and A95 VND500/liter or 3.03 per cent to VND16,000/liter.

 

Also, prices of diesel oil was cut by VND700/liter or 4.6 per cent to VND14,500/liter of diesel 0.05S, and by 4.62 per cent to VND14,450/liter of diesel 0.25S.

 

Kerosene and mazut prices were slashed by VND500/liter or 3.03 per cent to VND16,000 and by VND1,000/liter or 7.69 per cent to VND12,000/liter, respectively.

 

This is the fifth petroleum price reduction in the Vietnamese market since the government’s decision to grant price defining authority to petroleum traders from September 16, analysts said.

 

Petroleum traders will not raise the retail prices again if the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance decides to hike gasoline import tax to 10 per cent from current 5 per cent, diesel to 5 per cent from current zero percent, kerosene to 15 per cent from current 5 per cent and mazut to 7 per cent from current zero percent, VTC News quoted Mr. Dung as saying.

 

He noted that petroleum import tax will be kept unchanged in Vietnam in the near future, the Capital Security Online reported.

 

According to estimates, gasoline imported price hits only VND12,000-13,000/liter but most of major importers declined this, the government said on its website.

 

Traders are making profit of VND3,000 per liter of gasoline after deducting tax and related fees as well as refunding VND1,000/liter to the government advance, the People’s Police quoted analyst as saying.

 

Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh attributed the drip in petroleum prices October 17-18 to the fact that the ministry initially intended to hike petroleum import tax but finally turned out the plan for the sake of consumers’ benefits and inflation curbing. (Local sources)