Getting a fill up at a Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) station. Domestic  gasoline prices will be adjusted every 10 days to help prices stay in line with global price fluctuations. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Finance will adjust gasoline prices every ten days, to help keep domestic gasoline prices in line with global fluctuations, according to industry insiders.

This change is outlined in Decree No.95/2021/NĐ-CP dated November 1, 2021. This amends Decree No. 83/2014/NĐ-CP regarding oil and petroleum business.

Under the new rules, gasoline prices will be regulated on the 1st, 11th and 21st day of each month, putting prices onto a ten-day cycle. Industry insiders agree that this shorter period is necessary to keep up with world fluctuations.

The new decree will take effect as of January 2, 2022.  

Currently, the minimum interval between two consecutive adjustments in the same direction (two increases or two decreases) is 15 days.

Under Decree No. 95,  the selling price will be calculated based on the volume of domestically-produced petroleum products and imported ones.

Đinh Trọng Thịnh of the Institute for Economics said that the shorter timeframe was appropriate. He said that the old calculation was largely based on the price of imported gasoline only. However, at the moment domestically-produced gasoline accounts for more than 70 per cent of supply. Domestic production prices were cheaper than imported prices.

A representative of PV Oil said that calculating selling prices based on the price of local petroleum production would help Vietnamese petroleum products keep up with world price fluctuations. 

To deal with the gasoline prices, Trần Duy Đông, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Domestic Market Department, said that the adjustment of gasoline prices every 10 days aimed to closely follow any global changes. The move would also prevent local petrol traders from waiting to raise their selling prices, causing a negative effect on daily life.

Đông said his ministry would further conduct timely measures to prepare for sudden increases in global gasoline prices, which could have a great effect on social and economic development.

The two ministries would report such cases to the Prime Minister for consideration. — VNS