Biofuel consumption is low, Ministry of Industry and Trade changes price management proposal

The Ministry of Industry and Trade may announce ceiling prices for two popular gasoline products, RON 95-III and DO diesel.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just made a new proposal on the mechanism for regulating gasoline prices - Photo: Q. DINH

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just released the latest information on the draft to replace decrees on petroleum trading.

The most notable content is that this ministry has proposed a new mechanism for managing gasoline prices. Specifically, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in order to take a step forward towards the complete marketization of gasoline prices, the draft is expected to have a new plan for price management.

The state only announces price ceilings for two popular consumer goods.

Specifically, the state will only announce world petroleum product prices for two popular gasoline and diesel products on the market (including RON 95-III gasoline and 0.05S diesel) instead of announcing prices for all five products as it does now.

Explaining this plan, the ministry said that RON 95-III gasoline and DO 0.05S-II diesel have a large consumption proportion. These are popular gasoline and oil products on the market, affecting the majority of consumers. Therefore, the state needs to continue to announce world prices and input factors for businesses to calculate and announce according to the formula.

For E5 RON 92 bio-fuel and other gasoline and oil products, due to their low consumption proportion, businesses can proactively announce and decide on selling prices.

Traders will have to declare prices and if they increase prices unreasonably, they will be inspected and handled by competent state agencies.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, this regulation is consistent with the national energy development strategy and is a new content of the draft decree. This will be a pilot step, exploring the market to gradually apply gasoline prices completely according to the market mechanism.

Thus, the above plan is different from the previous proposal that the ministry put forward in many drafts, when the state will announce the calculation formula, the average world price of petroleum products every 7 days along with the costs for all items, so that businesses can calculate and announce the price themselves but not exceed the price calculated according to the formula.

Does the state regulate gasoline prices or do businesses decide for themselves?

However, according to the proposal of the Vietnam Petroleum Association and some key traders, it is necessary to allow enterprises to proactively calculate and decide prices according to the market mechanism. The State only announces the formula, international reference price and average premium (does not announce business costs and standard profits).

With the proposal of enterprises, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that it will help to proactively adjust prices. However, due to different business costs, selling prices in different regions will be different, making the state have no control tools, causing the risk of shortages, supply disruptions, shortages of goods, and price fever.

While the plan proposed in the draft has the disadvantage of not being close to the Law on Prices because it still controls selling prices through price ceilings, and businesses are not completely proactive in deciding prices, it will help the state maintain control tools, thereby monitoring supply.

Assessing that gasoline is a sensitive commodity, affecting economic security and energy security, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that the proposals of associations and businesses need to be carefully evaluated and have a roadmap for implementation.

Therefore, the ministry proposed two options for consultation: the government would announce prices for two popular consumer goods, RON 95 gasoline and diesel, and let businesses decide prices for the remaining goods. The second option was to follow the proposal of the association and representatives of some businesses.

The stabilization fund will be removed to have a stabilization mechanism when necessary.

Regarding the stabilization fund, businesses said that the fund should be abolished when the price of gasoline and oil has been almost stable recently, and there is no need to use the fund. Accepting this recommendation, the draft stipulates that the stabilization of gasoline and oil prices should be implemented similarly to other commodities.

In case of unusual price fluctuations, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant ministries and branches will assess the impact and take appropriate price stabilization measures.

Regarding the regulation that removes the right to buy and sell gasoline between gasoline distributors, many businesses believe that it is inappropriate. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that it will propose two options: not allowing businesses to buy and sell with each other, as well as continuing to keep the current regulation to collect opinions.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/xang-sinh-hoc-tieu-thu-it-bo-cong-thuong-thay-doi-de-xuat-dieu-hanh-gia-20241122142609091.htm