Finance Minister: Transparency needed in calculation of petrol prices

Newly-elected Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue

“I will work with the Ministry of Finance’s Price Management Department and auditing agencies to scrutinise the petroleum trade and take into account all costs that are included during the calculation of petroleum prices," said Hue, who formerly served as Chief Auditor of the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV).

According to Hue, the SAV is looking into the petroleum price stabilisation fund. The results of this investigation could confirm whether or not Vietnam National Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex) has been making profits or not.

In addition, further efforts would me made to clear up any questions about pricing in the electricity industry.

"We have to closely supervise the management of enterprises that trade in 'sensitive goods', such as petroleum and electricity," he emphasised.

In order to ensure transparency, prices would be adjusted based on changes in the market, which should help to curb inflation, he said, adding that any price increases should be applied along with policies to support the poor and families with members who were injured or killed during the American War.

Hue said that the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group's (EVN) accumulated loss is expected to be about VND35 trillion (nearly $1.7 billion) by the end of this year. This figure is lower than previous estimates, which were over VND60 trillion ($2.91 billion).

He affirmed that EVN’s loss this year would be surely be much lower than last year's because of a higher capacity for hydropower generation.

To alleviate people's worries about an impending power price hike, he said that any increase would be carefully assessed before its application in relation to the effect it might have on inflation.