Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien speaks at the National Assembly’s session on the 2022 socio-economic performance and the 2023 development plan on October 28. (Photo: VNA) At the National Assembly’s session on 2022 socio-economicperformance and the 2023 development plan on October 28, Minister of Industryand Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said the move was a prerequisite for petroleumbusinesses to maintain their business and prevent large-scale disruptionnationwide.
In recent days, many petrol stations in the southern region haveclosed, partly because of losses, and partly because of supply shortages.
Ta Thi Yen, a deputy from northern Dien Bien province, saidaccording to the national energy security strategy, there are two refineries ofNghi Son and Binh Son, which guarantee up to 70-80% of output, and the countryonly has to import the remaining 20%.
However, the shortage of petrol supply still occurred at manypetrol stations in Ho Chi Minh City. She asked for an explanation of the causeof the incident and the changes that should be made for improvement.
Explaining the issue, Dien said according to current regulations,petroleum management has been assigned to seven ministries and 63 cities andprovinces. So, it is necessary to closely coordinate among these ministries andauthorities to manage it well.
He said the ministry has been assigned to manage petroleum supplyand demand and operate the system. But in order to do that, the ministry neededthe banking industry’s support in credit lending and guarantees for petrolenterprises.
In order to help petroleum enterprises to survive and sustaintheir dealer and retail system, the sector needed to guide and update the costof sources and other actual expenses in the calculation of the petroleum baseprices.
In this way, enterprises could survive and handle their dealer andretail systems during difficult times.
In addition, Dien said that there should also be a role of localauthorities in licensing and managing nearly 17,000 agents and retailers.
Affirming that the petroleum market is basically stable, he said Vietnamis always among the countries with the lowest retail prices in the region andthe world.
He described the insufficient petroleum supply incident as"regrettable and unusual".
Pointing out the reasons, Dien said apart from global impacts onpetroleum prices, petroleum enterprises have difficulties in accessing capital,guaranteeing bank credit, and loan conditions while foreign exchange ratesincreased.
In the context of scarcity of goods, many costs are incurred,causing losses for enterprises and disruption to the domestic petroleum supply.
In addition to the impacts of natural disasters that slowed downfreight during the past two months, another reason, according to Dien, is therecent crackdown on a number of petrol smuggling rings with large quantities,affecting the distribution of petroleum in certain areas.
Dien said in the southern region, there are 146 petroleumdistributors, accounting for 44% of the total. However, the ministry’s surveyshowed that many dealers didn’t purchase petrol although they had signedcontracts, leading to the loss of buying opportunities when the marketfluctuated.
This has also contributed to the disruption of the petrol supplyin this region.
Regarding solutions, Dien said the ministry would direct petroland oil enterprises to share sources of supply, promptly provide aid to areasin need of petroleum, and allocate and increase production and import in orderto ensure market supply in all situations.
It would also coordinate with authorities to strengthen thesupervision of petrol enterprises and handle violations, including permanentlywithdrawing the licences of violators.
It would help remove difficulties in accessing capital as well asreview and update the new cost in the formula for calculating petroleum’s baseprices. Currently, businesses are in dire need of loosening the loan ceiling,preferential interest rates, supporting liquidity conditions to be able tomaintain their operations, he said.
The ministry would advise all levels to use taxes, fees,stabilisation funds, and welfare policies when necessary to regulate retailprices in line with the world’s market fluctuations. It would also deploypetroleum distribution management software to ensure accuracy and transparency.
Management policies in the field of petroleum production, businessand reserve would be amended and supplemented in order to remove the overlapsin management and operation, he added./.
VNA
