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Oil eases, elicits demand for lower retail prices
With global oil prices declining, analysts are urging the gov.ernment to cut retail prices instead of hiking import taxes like it did last time.
Economist Le Dang Doanh said fuel prices last week were US$86-95 a barrel, much lower than the $104 on March 29, when domestic petrol prices climbed to VND21,300 ($1.06) a liter.
Reducing retail prices should be the top priority when import prices fall since this would reduce prices and help stabilize the economy, he said. “It’s abnormal not to reduce prices when possible,” he added.
Earlier this month prices slumped to below $83 a barrel, sending petrol prices in Singapore -- Vietnam’s main supplier – down.
The director of a fuel importing company in the southern region said petrol wholesalers are earning profits at current prices.
Many analysts thus demanded that the government cut down retail prices and not repeat its policy in the world fuel price fluctuation two months ago.
Last June, when global prices fell sharply, the Ministry of Finance slapped a 5 percent import tariff on diesel and kerosene instead of cutting prices.
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