MOIT denies petrol price hike to VND25,000/litre

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) yesterday afternoon released a notice, denying the rumour that the ministry is going to raise the retail petrol price once again, to VND25,000/litre of RON 92.

The notice said that consumers have been rushing to filling stations to buy petrol for speculation as they have heard that the RON 92 petrol price would increase to VND25,000/litre.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu affirmed that the ministry does not intend to raise the retail petrol price at this moment.

“People should keep calm and continue their normal lives. The petrol price hike is just the untrue rumour,” Tu said.

MOIT has requested relevant ministries and branches to make investigation and impose heavy punishment on the institutions and individuals, who have spread the untrue rumour, which has caused uncertainties to the market.

Tu told VietNamNet yesterday afternoon that right after the rumour about the petrol price hike was spread, MOIT’s leaders had a urgent meeting with relevant branches of HCM City and asked to do four things 1/ checking the information and releasing official information from MOIT to assure the public 2/ the HCM City market control taskforce has to inspect filling stations to ensure that no filling station raises retail prices 3/ requesting companies to store petrol in anticipation of the sharp demand increase; and 4/ requesting press agencies to publish the news, rejecting the rumour about the petrol price hike.

In HCM City, the locality, where the false information about the petrol price hike originated, Le Xuan Dai, Deputy Head of the HCM City Market Control Sub-department said that the sub-department had made inspection tours to filling stations, but has not found out any station which sold petrol at the prices higher than the allowed levels.

Dai said that if someone discovered the filling stations which sold petrol at high prices, or found out the individuals and institutions who spread the rumour, should contact the hot lines 08-9325251 or 08-9322491.

VNN

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