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HCM City suggests single price for A95 petrol
The HCM City Market Control Sub-department has proposed that the city’s People’s Committee ask the Ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade to set a single price for A95 petrol, which would help the relevant agencies supervise petrol sales and punish violators.
Under the latest decision by the ministries, enterprises have the right to define the sale prices of A95 petrol, provided that the prices are no more than VND500/litre higher than the A92 petrol maximum price, now fixed at VND18,000/litre.
Dao Phuc Hung, Deputy Administration Head of the Market Control Sub-department, said that his staff cannot check all filling stations to ensure the stations are selling petrol at the prices set by the companies. It may happen that companies set the sale price at VND18,300/litre, but filling stations sell at VND18,500/litre. Therefore, Hung said, it would be better to set a single price for easier control and supervision.
Preliminary surveys show that most enterprises that set the sale price at the ceiling level of VND18,500/litre are private-owned companies in the suburbs of the city (districts 12, Go Vap and Hoc Mon), while big importers and distributors, including Petrolimex, Saigon Petrol and Comeco, are selling A95 petrol at VND18,300/litre.
Meanwhile, petrol importers think that it is not so difficult to supervise sales. Dang VInh Sang, General Director of Saigon Petrol, said that most big import companies set the sale price at VND18,300/litre and they have registered the sale prices at local departments of industry and trade. Therefore, the market control taskforce can easily discover violators and mete out fines.
Deputy General Director of Petrolimex Vuong Thai Dung said that it is not necessary to set a single price for A95 petrol, and that enterprises should be allowed to define the sale prices after considering import prices and expenses.
The market control sub-department has also warned that it is difficult to supervise the quality of petrol filling stations are selling. In many cases, A92 petrol is sold as A95 petrol.
Ly Ngoc Thang, Head of 3A Teamwork of the sub-department, said that an inspection in 2007 uncovered that 20% of inspected filling stations committed fraud by selling A90 petrol at the price of A92 petrol. He said that in takes four days on average to take a sample of petrol and send the sample to the quality inspection department. Four days is long enough for filling stations to sell out the volume of the petrol.
VNN
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