|
Kerosene price down, petrol price same
Petrolimex, the biggest oil and petrol importer and distributor in Vietnam, and other distributors have all announced price cuts on kerosene, while none of them have touched petrol prices.
The kerosene price was dropped to VND17,000/litre on October 1, or VND1,000/litre lower than the previous level, after the Ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade approved the price cut plan suggested by Petrolimex.
Explaining the decision, Petrolimex’ General Director Vuong Thai Dung said that the corporation now can make the profit of VND1,000 on every litre of kerosene as the world’s crude oil prices have been falling. Therefore, Petrolimex decided to cut the sale price in order to support people in remote areas, especially in northern mountainous regions, who have been suffering from floods.
The move by Petrolimex has been followed by other distributors. Nguyen Tien Thoa, Head of the Price Control Department under the Ministry of Finance, said that this was foreseeable as Petrolimex is the biggest kerosene supplier, which means that its decision always has big impacts on the market.
Thoa confirmed that other distributors have also registered to apply the sale price of VND17,000/litre of kerosene. He added that though enterprises now have the power to set sale prices themselves, they dare not raise sale prices spontaneously as they have to compete with other distributors
The kerosene price decrease has sparked the hope that the petrol price will also be slashed, especially as the crude oil price is now hovering around the $100/barrel threshold.
However, no distributor has intimated that they are preparing to reduce petrol sale prices.
Nguyen Thanh Huong, Deputy Head of the Price Control Department, on Saturday confirmed that no petrol price cut registration has been made so far, denying the rumour that petrol distributors had submitted plans to the ministries to reduce petrol prices.
Huong said that it is true that petrol distributors are making profit, but denied the opinion that the profit could be VND2,300-2,400/litre.
“The profit could not be so high, since enterprises are still selling the petrol they imported in September, when the world’s prices were high,” Huong said.
Huong went on to say that if petrol distributors are making the profit of VND1,500/litre, they will have to earn profit for the next few months to offset the losses of VND3tril they suffered earlier this year.
Huong stressed that the ministries would not ratify plans by enterprises to slash retail prices just to attract more clients and dominate the market.
“We will only approve plans if enterprises can prove that the plans are reasonable,” Huong said.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade on October 3 also confirmed that no petrol price cut has been proposed to date. The ministry thinks that the volume of petrol imported at high prices will not run out until mid November 2008.
VNN
|
