More than 700 gas businesses demand compensation from the Ministry of Industry and Trade

Gas businesses believe that if business conditions under Decree 19 are lowered, they will be pushed into a difficult situation and the Ministry of Industry and Trade must take responsibility if that happens.

Recently, a number of enterprises representing more than 700 enterprises operating in the gas business sector in the Northern region sent a petition to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and relevant ministries and branches requesting consideration of not amending the regulation lowering the standards for gas business conditions.

Illustration: Internet

Mr. Le Xuan Tuyen - Director of Viet Xo Gas Joint Stock Company, representing 300 gas enterprises in Thai Binh, said that according to the regulations in Decree 107 on gas business conditions, a level 1 gas distribution enterprise must have a tank of 800m3 and 300,000 cylinders. To meet this regulation, the enterprise has borrowed a large amount of money from the bank to invest and operate its business.

However, when Decree 19 is issued to replace Decree 107, the lowering of regulations on storage tanks and the number of LPG cylinders will have many problems. Currently, there are too many enterprises that do not meet the above conditions but now freely participate in the market, which means admitting that the previous traders were operating illegally and were not qualified. This leads to a situation of rampant supply, the State cannot control as well as fire safety.

In addition, Mr. Tuyen added that the gas market is currently in the situation of misappropriating bottle caps, sawing ears, and grinding letters, affecting quality, brand and causing safety. Many filling stations are not qualified for circulation, violating trademark registration, leading to fires and explosions without any basis for handling and prosecution.

From there, Mr. Tuyen proposed to maintain the regulation on ownership of 300m3 tanks and 100,000 gas cylinders according to Decree 19. In addition, the condition that gas cylinders must be owned by the main business enterprise must be maintained. This is to attach the responsibility of the main business enterprise to the activities of the cylinder filling station managed by the trader.

Besides Viet Xo Gas, Thanh Hoa Petroleum Company Limited, representing 450 gas trading enterprises in Thanh Hoa province, also sent a similar petition to the Prime Minister and relevant ministries and branches. In addition to similar proposals with their colleagues in Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa enterprises said that if the conditions stipulated in Decree 19 are further lowered, the Ministry of Industry and Trade should consider and compensate for bank loans that enterprises have invested in to properly and strictly comply with the provisions of this Decree.

Previously, at the end of September 2016, at the conference "Gathering opinions from organizations and individuals on regulations and administrative procedures of the Industry and Trade sector", more than 40 enterprises expressed their dissatisfaction with Decree 19. Enterprises said that the provisions of this Decree would lead to the elimination of small and medium enterprises newly entering the market, especially with many enterprises that have invested and operated legally and effectively.

According to Kinhtedothi