Ministry of Finance: Managing gasoline prices is not wrong!

In response to information from some press agencies that the management of gasoline prices is not in accordance with the regulations in Decree No. 84, dated December 9, 2013, the Ministry of Finance has refuted and affirmed: The management of gasoline prices is not wrong, it is in accordance with the regulations of Decree 84.

According to the Ministry of Finance, on December 5, 2013, the Ministry requested that key petroleum trading enterprises maintain stable domestic petroleum prices. In this plan, the standard profit margin will not be fully calculated in the base price for diesel and kerosene and will allow enterprises to increase the use of the Price Stabilization Fund for gasoline and diesel according to the provisions of Decree No. 84/2009/ND-CP dated October 15, 2009 of the Government on petroleum trading (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 84/2009/ND-CP).

However, there has been information from some press agencies that the Ministry of Finance's petrol price management on December 5, 2013 did not comply with the regulations in Decree No. 84/2009/ND-CP (the time for calculating the price did not include the world price, the interval between each management was not enough 10 days as prescribed...). Therefore, the Ministry of Finance has the following opinion:

According to the provisions of Point c, Clause 1, Article 27 of Decree No. 84/2009/ND-CP: "...The time between two (02) consecutive price adjustments is at least ten (10) calendar days in case of price increase, and at most ten (10) calendar days in case of price decrease...". Thus, the regulation of the interval between consecutive price adjustments is for the case of increase (decrease) in domestic gasoline prices and this interval is 10 calendar days.

Therefore, in the face of the increasing world oil prices, the Ministry of Finance has based on the domestic socio-economic situation and the basis for calculating the base prices of petroleum products.30 day averageof world oil prices. On that basis, apply financial tools to stabilize oil and gas prices; continue to not calculate enough profit margin in the base price for diesel and kerosene (temporarily calculated at 100 VND/liter instead of 300 VND/liter as prescribed); calculate profit margin for gasoline and mazut at 300 VND/liter, kg and allow businesses to increase the use of the Price Stabilization Fund for gasoline and diesel;No need to increase domestic gasoline prices.

Furthermore, in the previous administration (November 26, 2013), the Ministry of Financeno regulation on gasoline and diesel; only requires the main petroleum trading enterprises to stop using the Price Stabilization Fund of 200 VND/kg for mazut. The most recent management of gasoline and diesel oil was on November 11, 2013 for gasoline (reducing the minimum selling price by 241 VND/liter) and on October 7, 2013 for diesel oil (reducing the use of the Price Stabilization Fund by 100 VND/liter).

With the above explanation, the Ministry of Finance affirmed that the management of gasoline prices by the Ministry of Finance in the past and the management on December 5, 2013 was in accordance with the provisions of Decree No. 84/2009/ND-CP.

According to Baocongthuong