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Petrol dealers draw from fund
Petrol dealers took money from the petrol price stabilisation fund to compensate for losses made from trading petrol and oil at the start of this month, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Under the official letter No.4214/BTC-QLG issued on Wednesday by the ministry, the dealers were eligible for compensation of VND500 for a litre of petrol and VND400 for a litre of diesel oil or kerosene.
The fund has a capital of VND1.5 trillion (US$78.9 million), the ministry said.
The decision was issued after the dealers complained about huge losses due to increased world petrol and oil prices that had forced dealers to raise retail prices three times already this year.
The ministry said it applied the solution to drive back the continued increase of petrol and oil prices despite the fact that world prices were expected to continue to rise.
It denied the dealers' request to increase their retail prices a fourth time in line with inflation.
Recently, dealers said they had suffered huge losses from trading petrol and oil and asked the State to approve their plan to increase retail prices as compensation for their losses.
Increased retail prices have met with complaints from domestic customers.
Motorists must accept that under the market mechanism, petrol and oil prices would fluctuate, said Nguyen Cam Tu, deputy minister of Industry and Trade.
"Current retail prices of petrol and oil were based on the market mechanism under the State's management, according to Government Decree 84/CP-ND on trading petrol and oil," Tu said.
"So, current retail prices of petrol and oil on the domestic market reflect developments in world prices and demand on the home market," he added.
On Thursday, the price was US$89.52 per barrel of petrol, $90.18 per barrel of diesel oil and $89.42 per barrel of kerosene on the Singapore market, a light increase compared with those on Monday. (1 barrel = 159 litres).
vietnamnews
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