Gasoline discounts down
The owner of a retail business that owns 3 gas stations in Ho Chi Minh City said that at noon on October 9, at the Nha Be warehouse, the supplier announced a discount of 300 VND/liter for gasoline and 150 VND/liter for oil. Compared to last weekend, this level has dropped significantly. The discount at the warehouse is low, if you add the transportation cost of 150-170 VND/liter over 100km, leading to the business losing more and more money.
"The discount has been maintained at over 1,000 VND per liter for about half a month after a long period of ups and downs, now it has plummeted again, and this refrain will probably lead to bankruptcy. The concern is that the discount is low but it is difficult to place orders. If the situation of no goods continues, after a few days the circulating stock will run out, and the gas stations will be forced to close," this business owner worried.
At Chu Lai warehouse (Quang Nam), the discount rate for gasoline retail businesses applied from October 8 has dropped to a very low level, in which, RON 95 gasoline is 50 VND/liter; DO 0.005 oil is at 50 VND/liter, notably, E5 RON 92 gasoline has a discount of 0 VND/liter.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thang - Director of Hai Au Phat Petroleum Company (Lam Dong) - said that up to now, the company's petrol stations have enough supply, but if the current supply is small, it will not be enough in the next 3-4 days. According to him, the reason for the small supply of petrol is that the main suppliers are hoarding goods and waiting for price adjustments.
Mr. Giang Chan Tay - Director of Boi Ngoc Petroleum Company (Tra Vinh) - said that discounts are the only source of life for retail businesses. When they continue to be thinly distributed, all difficulties will be pushed down to retail businesses to bear.
While the draft decree on petroleum is still controversial and the time for its implementation cannot be determined, Mr. Tay said that petroleum business activities are facing many difficulties and shortcomings.
Recalling the image of long lines of people waiting in the hot afternoon or late at night, this person is worried that key enterprises are asking to reduce import output. With the situation of reduced supply and high world prices, the petroleum market is at risk of repeating the disruption phenomenon of 2022 and the first months of 2023.
Need to reorganize the petroleum market
The underlying cause of the instability is the source of goods and the "squeezing" of discounts, according to businesses, which have not yet been completely resolved in the petroleum decree being developed and consulted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Mr. Giang Chan Tay suggested that the problem that needs to be solved is how to separate import enterprises (major enterprises) from their retail store system so that the retail stores can account independently. Solving the problem like that will allow all retail enterprises throughout Vietnam to operate equally.
The reason this needs to be done, according to Mr. Giang Chan Tay, is that the Ministry of Industry and Trade currently gives too many rights to key enterprises.
"The main enterprise is the only unit that is allowed to create a source of goods by importing and purchasing goods from two domestic petrochemical refineries, then doing retail, and then being given the right to decide the retail price... it's like the Ministry of Industry and Trade has just handed over the power of life and death to them," said Mr. Giang Chan Tay.
According to him, monopoly will cause prices to rise, causing damage to the entire economy. Therefore, what the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to do immediately and include in the decree is not to allow wholesale traders to sell retail.
"The retail system of the main traders must be separated into financially independent companies to ensure transparency, the State does not lose tax and profits are not transferred back and forth in a difficult-to-control circle. The market will compete to develop better," said Mr. Giang Chan Tay.
Mr. Van Tan Phung - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dong Nai Petroleum Joint Stock Company - said that the draft needs to stipulate that key enterprises must ensure import and import key enterprises can only sell to owned units.
According to Mr. Phung, what the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to do is to reorganize the market, and review and purge weak and incompetent key enterprises and the distributors behind the key enterprises. This is the core issue of stabilizing the supply of gasoline.
