4:29:48 PM | 31/10/2008
Vietnamese authorities are considering slashing petroleum retail price and hike import tax in next few days so as to harmonize benefits among the State, enterprises and consumers amid downtrend of world oil prices, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.
The world gasoline price fell to US$61.2/barrel on Oct 28 but the price management group of the Ministries of Finance, and Industry and Trade has not yet received any retail price cut proposals by enterprises, the Youth Online daily reported.
Addressing the 12th National Assembly’s 4th session, many deputies proposed petroleum and gas price cut right now while attributing current slow price reduction to the low competition pressure in the domestic market and the lack of efficient supervision mechanism.
Vietnam National Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex), the biggest petroleum distributor in Vietnam, said Oct 29 that the corporation will consider to slash retail price in next few days based on import price Oct, current world price and unchanged import tax, the CafeF daily reported.
Petrolimex Deputy General Director Bui Ngoc Bao also said the company will adjust prices in accordance with market mechanism but not confirm whether it has sent price cut proposal to relevant authorities or not.
The global crude oil price recently tumbled to the record low over the past 17 month to US$59/barrel, down nearly 55.5 per cent compared to the peak July 11.
Experts estimated that petroleum import tax may be hiked to 15 per cent from current 5 per cent in Vietnam in a bid to offset state budget revenue tumble due to the current low world crude oil price.
An anonymous analyst said that gasoline retail price could be cut by VND500-VND1,000/liter but still ensure corporate profits if the import tax is raised to 10 per cent and if enterprises refund VND1,000/liter to the government advance.
Vietnam’s current retail gasoline prices of VND15,500/liter of A92 and VND16,000/liter of A95 is still higher than the rates of between VND12,024/liter and VND15,570/liter in some countries in the world.
In the wake of the global oil prices, many countries and territories worldwide have slashed gasoline retail price, to average VND15,393/liter in the U.S., VND13,527/liter in Thailand, VND15,570 in China, VND12,024 in Malaysia, and VND14,028 in Taipei-China. (Youth Online, CafeF)
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