Ministry of Industry and Trade manages new suitable petroleum reserves
On December 14, the Ministry of Finance sent a document to the Government Office reporting on petroleum reserves.
Regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposing that the Government transfer the task of managing national petroleum reserves from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Finance in the 2024-2025 period, the Ministry of Finance clearly expressed its disagreement.
Citing the Law on National Reserves and related decrees, the Ministry of Finance said: The Ministry of Industry and Trade is assigned by the Government to manage national petroleum reserves, and the Ministry of Finance manages the state in the field of national reserves.
Furthermore, petroleum is a special commodity, flammable, toxic and a conditional business; storage, transportation, purchase, sale, import and export must comply with strict technical standards; petroleum tanks, pipeline systems and means of transport must be specialized and specific.
Therefore, the national petroleum management agency must be a competent, professional and technical agency; with the function of state management of the industry and field. Based on the assigned functions, tasks and powers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the agency assigned by the Government to perform the function of state management of industry and trade, including the following industries and fields: Electricity, coal, oil and gas, energy... (according to Decree No. 96/2022/ND-CP dated November 29, 2022 of the Government).
Therefore, the Government's assignment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage the national reserve petroleum products is consistent with its functions, tasks, and capacity and actual conditions of the organization and management apparatus of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In case the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to transfer the national petroleum reserve from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Finance for management, the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Industry and Trade to carefully assess the legal basis, advantages, disadvantages, solutions and implementation roadmap to have a basis to report to competent authorities for consideration and decision.
Why are there regulations but still reserves together with the business gasoline?
Regarding the resolution of difficulties and problems in the preservation of National Reserve petroleum, in Document No. 13833/BTC-TCDT dated December 14, 2023 sent to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance stated: Since the Law on National Reserve was promulgated in 2012 (effective from July 1, 2013), the Ministry of Industry and Trade has preserved National Reserve petroleum together with commercial petroleum under the preservation contract and appendix of the preservation contract signed with 4 enterprises.
Meanwhile, according to the law on national reserves, national reserve gasoline must be stored separately, but in reality, national reserve gasoline is being stored by the Ministry of Industry and Trade together with the gasoline sold by enterprises.
Every year (from 2014 to 2022), the Ministry of Industry and Trade will carry forward the storage contracts signed in 2014 through contract appendices to store national reserve petroleum; in 2023, no contract has been signed to store national reserve petroleum.
According to the explanation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, separate storage of petroleum products has not been implemented because the storage fee for national reserve petroleum products is not suitable to reality.
However, the feedback from the Ministry of Finance confirmed that, according to the provisions of Circular No. 108/2013/TT-BTC dated August 13, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for developing a plan, drafting the national fuel quota and collecting comments from relevant agencies and units to send to the Ministry of Finance for appraisal and promulgation. Since the National Fuel Law was promulgated in 2012, the Ministry of Finance has not received any request documents with the dossier for formulating the quota from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
To resolve difficulties in the cost of preserving national reserve gasoline when storing separately according to the provisions of Article 51 of the Law on National Reserves, the Ministry of Finance has presided over and coordinated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant units to develop and submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation Decision No. 16/2020/QD-TTg dated May 15, 2020 on the Regulation on management of national reserve gasoline. In particular, Article 3 of the Regulation on principles for management of national reserve gasoline stipulates: Calculate correctly and fully the cost of preserving national reserve gasoline annually according to regulations.
Thus, the Ministry of Finance believes that: The current policy mechanism has sufficient conditions to implement separate storage of national reserve gasoline and oil; the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Industry and Trade to organize the implementation according to the provisions of Circular No. 108/2013/TT-BTC dated August 13, 2023 of the Ministry of Finance regulating the technical economic management of national reserve goods.
According to the report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Official Dispatch No. 5513/BCT-KHTC dated August 15, 2023, the total amount of national petroleum reserves as of December 31, 2022 is 367,125 m3, tons. This total amount of petroleum is consistent with the amount being monitored by the Ministry of Finance, with a total value of about VND 2,603 billion, accounting for about 95% of the total amount of national petroleum reserves. According to the Ministry of Finance, the national reserve gasoline has never been used for export according to the provisions of the National Reserve Law; only for sale (14,751 m3 of national reserve kerosene in 2012), for conversion of types (121,435 m3 of 0.25%S Diesel to 0.05%S Diesel in 2015), and for loss (annually according to the norm). |
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