Biofuel consumption is low, Ministry of Industry and Trade changes price management proposal
E5 RON 92 (E5) gasoline is an environmentally friendly product, encouraged to use but in reality is not favored by customers, many gas stations have reduced the sale of E5 gasoline, even "discontinued". That is the actual record of Lao Dong Newspaper in recent days.
The Department of Science and Technology (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that although the Government is very determined and has implemented many solutions to encourage the use of biofuels, the trend of using this fuel has been decreasing in recent years.
The reason is that the price difference between biofuel and traditional mineral gasoline is not attractive enough for consumers to switch to biofuel.
In addition, users also have a prejudice that using this type of gasoline can affect the engine, especially for motorbike users with average income, who consider this a large asset and want to ensure the longevity of the engine.
The Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) has just released the latest information on the draft to replace the decrees on petroleum trading. The most notable content is that the ministry has proposed a new mechanism for managing petroleum prices.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that to take a step forward towards the complete marketization of gasoline prices, the draft is expected to have a new plan for price management.
The State will only announce the world price of petroleum products for two popular gasoline and diesel products on the market (including RON 95-III gasoline and 0.05S diesel) instead of announcing the prices of all five products as it does now.
Explaining this plan, the ministry said that RON 95-III gasoline and DO 0.05S-II diesel have a large consumption proportion. These are popular gasoline and oil products on the market, affecting the majority of consumers. Therefore, the state needs to continue to announce world prices and input factors for businesses to calculate and announce according to the formula.
For E5 RON 92 bio-fuel and other gasoline and oil products, due to their low consumption proportion, businesses can proactively announce and decide on selling prices.
Traders will have to declare prices and if they increase prices unreasonably, they will be inspected and handled by competent state agencies.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, this regulation is consistent with the national energy development strategy and is a new content of the draft decree. This will be a pilot step, exploring the market to gradually apply gasoline prices completely according to the market mechanism.
Thus, the above plan is different from the previous proposal that the ministry put forward in many drafts, when the state will announce the calculation formula, the average world price of petroleum products every 7 days along with the costs for all items, so that businesses can calculate and announce the price themselves but not exceed the price calculated according to the formula.
Almost no use of the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund
Regarding the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund, opinions from a number of ministries, branches, the Vietnam Petroleum Association and representatives of a number of enterprises suggested that the Ministry of Industry and Trade consider removing regulations on the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund.
Through the implementation in recent times, with price management every 7 days, the Ministry of Industry and Trade assessed that domestic gasoline prices have basically been adjusted to closely follow world gasoline prices, almost without having to use the Price Stabilization Fund as prescribed.
Accordingly, the draft Decree stipulates cases of implementing price stabilization of gasoline and oil similar to other items in the List of price-stabilized goods and services prescribed in the Law on Prices.
In case the market price of petroleum products fluctuates abnormally, causing a major impact on the socio-economy, production, business, and people's lives, the Ministry of Industry and Trade shall preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to assess the level of fluctuations in the price of petroleum products, the level of impact on the socio-economy, production, business, and people's lives, and send a document to the Ministry of Finance for synthesis to submit to the Government for consideration and decision on the price stabilization policy according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 20 of the Law on Prices.
In case the competent authority declares a state of emergency, incident, disaster, natural disaster, epidemic and the market price level of petroleum products fluctuates abnormally, the Ministry of Industry and Trade shall preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to assess the actual developments and the market price level of petroleum products, send a document to the Ministry of Finance to synthesize and submit to the Government for decision on policies, measures and appropriate price stabilization period according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 20 of the Law on Prices.
