Knocking the petroleum market into line is an urgent need as more firms join the field.
illustration photo Four businesses recently became eligible to step into the petroleum import export business, which reflects petroleum trading’s charm for investors.
These firms are Phuong Dong Petroleum Joint Stock Company, Petroleum and Maritime Service Company, Song Hau Petroleum Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (all based in Ho Chi Minh City) and Hau Giang province’s Thai Son Petroleum Joint Stock Company.
With the recent move, there will be 17 petroleum import export businesses in Vietnam.
But, the number of traders has proven controversial for Petrolimex’s argument in 2012 that the group did not report any profits from petroleum trading, it even counted VND125 billion ($6 million) in losses prioritising the petrol stabilisation task as assigned by the government.
“More businesses joining the field is a beneficial factor since it helps create a healthy competitive market,” said head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Domestic Market Department Vo Van Quyen.
Quyen said it would need up to 10 years to build-up a competitive petroleum trading market. “For the market not being controlled by some big players, allowing more capable businesses to join the field is a smart move,” he noted.
Under current regulations, petroleum import exporting is a conditional business regulated in Decree 84/2009/ND-CP on petroleum trading.
Under the decree, after firms submitted files asking for licence provisioning, the MoIT will form an inter-sectoral group to check if these firms’ technical infrastructure is up to scratch to act as petroleum import export firms.
Saigon Petro’s director Dang Vinh Sang assumed post-licencing checks of petroleum import export businesses would be important to avoid creating a messy domestic market.
Sang argued there were possibly cases of firms not importing petroleum products when the world price was climbing, leading to product scarcity and creating chaos in the market.
In respect to petroleum field price management, Sang said: “Domestic petrol prices should be close to the world market and the interval for price adjustment should be shortened to 10 days, but not 30 days as is currently the situation.”
By Thanh Huong
Đăng ký: VietNam News