According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in recent days, many petrol and oil retail businesses closed gas filling stations or temporarily suspended business in some provinces and cities such as the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho, the Southern provinces of An Giang, Binh Phuoc, and the Central Highlands Province of Dak Lak.
Two ministries decided to increase the transportation cost of gasoline from the factory to ports to ensure the actual costs incurred by the business, helping businesses hike the discount rate in the petroleum distribution system but still minimize the impact on the price of petrol and oil and the government’s inflation control.
According to the ministries, they decided to raise the transportation costs of the special commodity because from the end of 2021 up to now, the cost of petroleum business has increased sharply, wholesale enterprises do not have enough financial resources to import goods, so they mainly only maintain a sufficient quantity of goods to supply their distributing system and maintain the prescribed inventory. Besides, over the past time, the gasoline price in the world has decreased continuously by a wide margin with unpredictable forecasts leading to the fact that Vietnamese enterprises don’t want to import the commodity.
Due to a lack of resources, many businesses have sharply reduced sales discounts to prevent retailers from taking a lot of goods and suffering from loss-making. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has directed wholesale traders and petrol and oil distributors should reserve enough petrol as well as have an import plan and strictly implement the plan for minimum import quotas for wholesale traders that have been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2022 to ensure an adequate supply of petrol and oil for the domestic market.
This Ministry has also sent a document to chairpersons of people's committees in cities and provinces asking wholesalers and distribution traders in areas to share the supply and profits for distributing agents and retail stores reasonably. At the same time, retail businesses, agents, and petrol shops also need to understand and share the difficulties of wholesalers and petrol distributors in recent times.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked the State Bank of Vietnam to direct commercial banks to have policies to support and create conditions for petroleum businesses in terms of credit lines and preferential interest rates in order to help them reduce financial costs to import and buy gasoline from foreign suppliers and domestic producers, ensuring sufficient supply for the market.
