It is inappropriate to prohibit gasoline distribution businesses from buying and selling from each other.
According to the petition, the community of gasoline distributors and retailers continues to be concerned about the regulation that distributors "are only allowed to buy gasoline from the main gasoline traders, and are not allowed to buy and sell gasoline to each other."
The distribution and retail business community believes that this regulation is unreasonable, unobjective and unscientific, because the decree stipulates that all conditions must comply with the provisions of the Investment Law and related laws.
The Investment Law clearly states that business conditions can only be prescribed if deemed "necessary for reasons of national defense, national security, social order and safety, social ethics, and public health". And business investment conditions must ensure publicity, transparency, objectivity, and save time and compliance costs for investors.
Thus, the Decree not allowing traders to distribute and trade gasoline with each other is not a business condition but an overreach of authority. This means that when enterprises have complied with and fully ensured business conditions such as having a business eligibility license; having the number of owned stores, the number of stores acting as agents, warehouses - tanks, means of transport, fire prevention and fighting systems, environmental protection... according to regulations, they must be free and have full business rights as stipulated in the Commercial Law.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade's proposal that distributors are not allowed to buy goods from each other will invisibly put businesses in a dependent position, working for the main traders. This will lead to many consequences when the main traders currently have a natural monopoly position.
Because for many years in the market there has been a super large enterprise that accounts for 51% of the market share, has all the business rights of a wholesale trader, especially has a distribution system from import, wholesale and retail to consumers.
Meanwhile, according to the Competition Law 2024, an enterprise holding 30% of the market share or 5 enterprises together holding 85% or more of the market share will become the dominant enterprise in the market.
"Therefore, we believe that we should not regulate a content that is considered a business condition, but in essence is not a business condition, such as the regulation that distributors are not allowed to buy goods from each other," the petition stated.
Many recommendations were made.
In the petition sent to the Minister of Industry and Trade, the group of distributors also made three recommendations: First, the management agency must have solutions to reduce the monopoly or market dominance of large and super-large enterprises.
Second, accept some urgent recommendations such as the request to amend the draft Decree to allow distributors to buy gasoline from other distributors as prescribed in Decree 95/2021.
The drafting agency needs to reconsider the existence of the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund, because this fund is ineffective and has little practical effect. Meanwhile, the fund creates a financial burden for businesses in general.
Third, it is necessary to fundamentally and substantially innovate the assignment of pricing authority, price agreement and price competition according to the provisions of the Law on Prices in the direction that gasoline prices are not priced by the State but are stabilized; and price regulation is up to enterprises to decide on prices.
"We must consistently ensure real rights for businesses to set their own prices, negotiate prices, and compete on prices according to objective market signals," the analysis group stated.
According to the proposal, giving the right to set gasoline prices to businesses does not mean that the State "let go" or "let loose" for businesses to set prices as they please. The State must still control and regulate that right of businesses in appropriate forms.
Speaking with Lao Dong, a representative of the Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that they will submit a plan for gasoline distributors to buy and sell from each other, creating conditions to diversify the distribution system.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Thoa - former Director of the Price Management Department (Ministry of Finance) said that it is necessary to allow distributors to buy and sell with each other as per current regulations. Because the "fake" data on the amount of gasoline consumed in the market has been resolved by some new regulations in this draft.
In the draft, the Drafting Committee proposed a new regulation that "connecting data on total petroleum sources, consumption, petroleum inventories, etc. is a mandatory condition that petroleum traders must implement".
"This is a new regulation that previous decrees did not have. With this new point, the concerns of the Ministry of Industry and Trade about the virtual figures of gasoline consumption have been resolved," said Mr. Thoa.
