Flexible use of the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund to limit price increases

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai: The Ministry of Industry and Trade proactively manages to ensure that domestic gasoline supply is not interrupted based on assessing the supply capacity from domestic production sources and imported sources.

The Government Office has just issued Notice No. 179/TB-VPCP dated June 22, 2022, concluding the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai - Head of the Steering Committee for Price Management at the meeting on June 13, 2022 on price management of a number of commodity groups.

In the first 5 months of 2022, in the context of increasing global inflationary pressure, especially in North America and Europe due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has affected the global supply chain of food, raw materials, fuels, and strategic materials. The Government, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister - Head of the Steering Committee for Price Management have directed ministries, branches, and localities to deploy many positive, effective, and synchronous solutions in management and operation to stabilize prices to control inflation in the first 5 months of the year; thereby helping the price level to be basically controlled, compared to the same period in 2021, the average CPI in the first 5 months of the year increased by 2.25%, core inflation in the first 5 months of the year increased by 1.1%.

In the coming time, inflationary pressure tends to increase, prices of raw materials, especially petroleum products, have many fluctuations, affecting the price level of many goods, including important and essential goods such as petroleum, agricultural materials, construction materials, transportation and some service groups such as education, healthcare, etc., posing challenges in price management from now until the end of the year, requiring ministries and branches under their state management functions to actively assess, grasp the situation, prepare plans and forecast scenarios to advise the Government and the Prime Minister to propose solutions suitable to the actual situation to control inflation according to the set target.

To proactively respond to challenges in price management in the remaining 7 months of 2022, based on the documents announcing specific solutions on price management in 2022 (Document No. 882/VPCP-KTTH dated February 10, 2022, Notice No. 65/TB-VPCP dated March 2, 2022, Notice No. 81/TB-VPCP dated March 24, 2022), it is recommended that ministries, branches and localities continue to resolutely implement solutions, close to the actual situation, have detailed plans, assign specific tasks to functional units in the system, strengthen inspection and control to maintain stable market price levels, contributing to controlling inflation according to the target.

Continue to closely monitor inflation and response policies of countries.

Specifically, the State Bank of Vietnam, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and other ministries and sectors, will continue to implement a proactive and flexible monetary policy in close coordination with fiscal policy and other macroeconomic policies to control inflation according to the set target. Continue to control core inflation in 2022 to create a basis for controlling general inflation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates with ministries and branches to continue to closely monitor the economic situation, inflation and response policies of countries, and price developments of fuel and strategic materials to promptly provide information to specialized agencies.

The Ministry of Finance proactively coordinates with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the State Bank of Vietnam to continue to promote the work of synthesizing, analyzing, forecasting, and developing specific, detailed scenarios close to the actual situation to help the management and operation of the Government and ministries and branches.

People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities shall carry out state management of goods according to their authority, strengthen inspection and supervision, take appropriate price stabilization measures; proactively inspect price formation factors according to the provisions of the Law on Prices and according to their authority when goods have unusual fluctuations.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, in coordination with other ministries and sectors, continues to focus on information, propaganda, and transparent disclosure of price information to control expected inflation; limit false information that causes confusion among consumers and destabilizes the market.

Regarding the work of building and perfecting laws, the Ministry of Finance closely follows the direction in Official Dispatch No. 3173/VPCP-PL notifying the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh on the Law and Ordinance Building Program in 2023, adjusted in 2022 to complete the Price Law project to ensure progress; Ministries and branches proactively coordinate closely with the Ministry of Finance in giving opinions as well as implementing the building and amending and supplementing of related Law projects (such as the Land Law, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, the amended Law on Telecommunications, etc.) to ensure consistency and unity of the system of legal documents.

People fill up gas at a gas station in Vinh city (Nghe An). Photo: Quang An

Ensure uninterrupted domestic gasoline supply

For specific goods, the Ministries managing the sectors and fields shall coordinate with the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities to focus on removing difficulties for production and business to prepare adequate supply of goods to meet consumer demand, facilitating the circulation and distribution of goods and services. In case of major price fluctuations, the provisions of the Law on Prices shall be used to propose and implement appropriate price stabilization measures.

Specifically, for goods and services whose prices are set by the State, it is necessary to carefully calculate the plan, assess the impact on price levels and inflation control targets in order to have a specific management plan to report to the Price Management Steering Committee and the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall proactively manage to ensure that the domestic supply of petroleum is not interrupted based on the assessment of the supply capacity from domestic production sources and imported sources; closely monitor world price developments to have appropriate plans to manage domestic petroleum prices, flexibly use the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund to limit the increase in domestic petroleum prices during periods of major fluctuations. The State Capital Management Committee directed the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) to promptly report on the petroleum supply plan of Nghi Son Oil Refinery to the Ministry of Industry and Trade as a basis for developing a plan to ensure petroleum supply for the third quarter and the end of 2022.

The Ministry of Transport continues to strengthen inspection and supervision of price declaration, posting and ticket sales at listed prices for transport businesses; review price increases to ensure they are consistent with the developments and structure of fuel costs in transport costs.

Farmers' joy of a bumper crop in the 2021 spring crop. Photo: Phu Huong

Strengthening inspection, control of quality and price of input materials for agricultural production

Regarding construction materials, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Construction coordinate with ministries, branches and localities in effectively managing supply sources; preventing hoarding of goods, causing disruption of the supply chain. The Ministry of Transport and other ministries, branches and investors of construction investment projects proactively compile a list of construction materials according to the technical requirements of traffic works, especially materials used for highways, and send them to localities with a basis for determining and announcing prices according to regulations. Localities focus on performing the task of promptly announcing construction material prices according to regulations; coordinate with ministries and branches to ensure the circulation and supply of construction materials.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall strengthen inspection and control of the quality and price of input materials for production; coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to direct fertilizer production enterprises to maintain and maximize their capacity to quickly and promptly supply fertilizers to the market; serve domestic demand. Strengthen inspection and supervision of production and trading activities of animal feed and fertilizers.

Regarding pork, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development focuses on ensuring supply, especially at the end of the year; the Ministry of Industry and Trade, People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities strengthen control of intermediaries and circulation in the market.

Regarding prices of medical examination and treatment services, prices of education - training services and vocational education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, based on the provisions of Decree No. 60/2021/ND-CP dated June 21, 2021 of the Government and according to assigned functions and tasks, shall preside over, carefully assess the impact, propose appropriate solutions, report to the Prime Minister to submit to competent authorities for consideration and decision, after receiving appraisal opinions from the Ministry of Finance, ensuring prudence, limiting the impact on price levels and inflation control targets.

The Ministry of Finance coordinates with the Ministry of Education and Training to carefully study the law on prices to manage textbook prices in accordance with the actual situation, with a clear adjustment roadmap; continues to receive price declarations according to legal regulations; publishing units continue to review and implement cost reduction measures to continue to control inflation, ensure social security, and share with consumers.