From 4:30 p.m. this afternoon (March 21), the retail price of A92 gasoline increased by 670 VND per liter, to 14,422 VND/liter; E5 gasoline increased by 570 VND to 13,891 VND/liter.

According to the decision just announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade - Ministry of Finance on adjusting the prices of gasoline and oil products, diesel 0.05S also increased by 293 VND/liter to 9,873 VND/liter; Kerosene remained stable at 8,905 VND/liter; Mazut 180CST 3.5S remained stable at 7,225 VND/kg.

According to the Ministry of Finance and Industry and Trade, the average price of finished petroleum products in the world in the 15 days before March 21, 2016 was 49.949 USD/barrel of RON 92 gasoline; 46.309 USD/barrel of 0.05S diesel; 48.053 USD/barrel of kerosene; 179.448 USD/ton of 180CST 3.5S fuel oil.

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Thus, the average price of finished petroleum products in the world in this management period compared to the previous management period increased by 7.635 USD/barrel for RON 92 gasoline (equivalent to +18.0%); increased by 5.984 USD/barrel for diesel 0.05S (equivalent to +14.8%); increased by 5.438 USD/barrel for kerosene (equivalent to +12.8%); increased by 25.263 USD/ton for fuel oil 180CST 3.5S (equivalent to +16.4%).

Along with the increase in retail prices, the Joint Ministry also decided to keep the current level of the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund for petroleum products.

Specifically, the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund will be used for the following petroleum products: Mineral gasoline: VND 1,047/liter; E5 gasoline: VND 1,115/liter; Diesel oil: VND 983/liter; Kerosene: VND 909/liter; Fuel oil of all kinds: VND 231/kg.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade - Ministry of Finance also decided to apply import tax on petroleum products as follows:

Diesel import tax reduced from 10% to 7% (down 3%);

Kerosene import tax reduced from 13% to 7% (down 6%);

Import tax on fuel oil reduced from 10% to 7% (down 3%).

According to the guidance of the Ministry of Finance in Official Dispatch No. 189/BTC-QLG dated March 18, 2016 on petroleum business management, the import tax applied when calculating the base price of petroleum products is the weighted average import tax according to the import volume from different sources. Specifically:

Gasoline products: import tax applied when calculating base price is 18.08%;

Diesel products: import tax applied when calculating base price is 0.60%;

Fuel oil products: import tax applied when calculating base price is 0.03%;

Petroleum products: import tax applied when calculating base price is 0%.

Many oil companies predict that gasoline prices will increase sharply today because gasoline prices on the world market have continuously increased in the past few days.

Last Friday’s session in the US market, the price of light sweet crude oil WTI for May delivery increased sharply by about 2.5% at the beginning of the session, but then when the number of US oil rigs was announced, the price of oil decreased by 1.9%, to 39.44 USD/barrel. Just one day before, the price of WTI oil exceeded 40 USD/barrel for the first time since December 3, 2015.

On the London market, Brent oil price for the same term also decreased by 0.8% to 41.20 USD/barrel.

Oil prices rose on both the US and London markets last week. US crude rose 2.4% for the fifth consecutive week of gains, while Brent crude rose 2% for its fourth straight week of gains.

Oil prices have risen sharply in recent weeks as investors expect that many of the world's major oil producers, both inside and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), will cooperate to maintain oil production at January's average level, despite the absence of cooperation from Iran. The meeting is scheduled to take place on April 17 in Qatar.

Since the beginning of the year, domestic gasoline prices have decreased four times in a row. However, since June 2015, gasoline prices have decreased 16 times, with a total decrease of nearly 7,000 VND/liter compared to the previous price.

According to the latest statistics from the Global Petrol Prices website, despite many recent price adjustments, Vietnam's gasoline prices are currently about 18% lower than the world average. The average Vietnamese gasoline price as of March 14, 2016 was 0.66 USD/liter (higher than the 0.65 USD/liter on February 29, 2016), while the world's average gasoline price is currently 0.9 USD/liter (same as February 29, 2016).

Compared to some neighboring countries, gasoline prices in Vietnam are lower than Thailand (0.88 USD/barrel), China (0.91 USD/liter), Philippines (0.79 USD/liter), Laos (1.16 USD/liter), Cambodia (0.78 USD/liter)... According to Global Petrol Prices, which compiles gasoline prices in 200 countries around the world, the lowest gasoline price in Kuwait is only 0.22 USD/liter, equivalent to about 4,900 VND/liter; the highest is in Hong Kong at 1.81 USD/liter, equivalent to about 40,400 VND/liter.

Previously, the most recent announcement of Vietnam's basic gasoline price on March 4, 2016 kept the price of RON 92 gasoline at VND13,752/liter. To have this stable price, according to the Ministry of Finance - Industry and Trade, the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund spent VND370/liter to stabilize mineral gasoline./.

According to VOV