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Recently, the supply of gasoline has encountered many difficulties, prices have fluctuated greatly and limitations in management have had a significant impact on the entire gasoline business system in Hai Duong.
The whole province currently has 266 retail gasoline stores under the management of 189 traders.
Recently, the petroleum business situation continues to be a "hot" issue. Many petroleum businesses have proposed that there should be a plan to manage the market stably to ensure operations.
Many shortcomings
In 2022 and January 2023, the situation of petroleum supply and prices in the world and in the country will continue to be complicated. The petroleum supply in the area is facing many difficulties, and large price fluctuations have significantly affected key traders, distributors and the entire petroleum trading system. In addition to objective reasons (changing world oil prices, wars in some countries), there is also a subjective reason causing the abnormality, which is that the pricing mechanism prescribed in Decree 95/2021/ND-CP dated November 1, 2021 is no longer suitable for market reality. Actual expenses are much higher than the applied regulations, leading to large losses for businesses, so some key businesses do not continue to import petroleum as planned.
Hai Duong Petroleum Supplies Joint Stock Company is a leading enterprise in the petroleum business. According to Mr. Le Duc Ngoc, Head of the Import-Export Department of the company, the enterprise currently imports petroleum mainly from Korea and Singapore. The enterprise currently supplies petroleum to 60 wholesale customers and 80 retail customers in many provinces and cities, supplying the market with 30,000-35,000 m3 of petroleum each month. However, according to Mr. Ngoc, for a long time, premium costs (basic costs calculated on each barrel of oil imported to the port) have not been calculated correctly and sufficiently for the enterprise.
According to Mr. Le Huy Hoang, Director of Kenda Petroleum Joint Stock Company in Tan Binh Ward (Hai Duong City), currently, petroleum retail agents and traders with the right to retail petroleum are only allowed to sign contracts with one petroleum supplier (a wholesaler or distributor, a franchisee or a general agent). This regulation is not in line with the market mechanism and becomes a barrier to business development, failing to promote healthy competition in business. In recent times, the petroleum market has been very unstable, the scarcity of supply is a clear proof, the above regulation has limited the ability of retail enterprises to proactively seek sources of petroleum supply to maintain business operations and serve consumers. On the other hand, in case the supplier's license is revoked, the entire distribution system will be interrupted, directly affecting the business plan of the enterprise as well as affecting consumers. "Kenda Petroleum Joint Stock Company currently has 3 retail gasoline stores. Due to the instability of the gasoline market, the company is currently suspending 5 projects related to the construction of gasoline stores," said Mr. Hoang.
A representative of Hoang Xuan One Member Co., Ltd. in An Lam Commune (Nam Sach) also said that some current regulations on petroleum business are not suitable, especially in the retail stage, leading to heavy losses for petroleum retail businesses for a long time, leading to a disruption in supply sources. Hoang Xuan One Member Co., Ltd. once suffered losses of 70-100 million VND/month for a long time. “If the petroleum supply remains scarce and the discount rate is not adjusted appropriately, the business will not have enough goods and financial capacity to maintain business operations. We are most concerned about the situation of the more we sell, the more we lose. Meanwhile, petroleum retail stores do not have the right to stop selling and cannot take the initiative in the source of goods when they can only import goods from a single distributor or source,” said a representative of this business.
Need to adjust, modify
Current market management reveals many shortcomings that need to be adjusted and revised.
Currently, domestic gasoline prices are managed and operated according to market principles with State regulation, through two main solutions: supply and adjustment of price components (taxes, fees...).
According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Bang, Director of Tuan Dung Company Limited in Thanh Giang Commune (Thanh Mien), the delay in adjusting gasoline prices due to the holidays and Tet continues to reveal shortcomings. For example, the adjustment period at the end of January. Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, the adjustment period was postponed to February 1 as planned. However, the price adjustment period was later pushed up 2 days earlier than planned (on January 30). The delay in adjusting the price while world gasoline prices fluctuated daily caused many times when the import price of goods of enterprises when arriving at the warehouse was higher than the current retail price.
Faced with the above shortcomings, the Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Duong continues to request the Ministry of Industry and Trade to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to implement a number of solutions to remove difficulties for the petroleum trading system. Specifically, the Department of Industry and Trade proposes to amend and supplement the decree in the direction of assigning key traders to be responsible for calculating and balancing proposed wholesale prices, retail prices, and discount rates for the entire distribution system - registering the selling price and the time of application with the Ministry of Industry and Trade - Finance according to the provisions of the Law on Prices. At that time, the state management agency will decide to set an appropriate retail ceiling price, after applying measures to deduct and spend the Price Stabilization Fund to achieve the goal of controlling fluctuations in the market. It is proposed to assign the Ministry of Industry and Trade to take primary responsibility for state management of petroleum products instead of the Ministry of Industry and Trade - Finance as it is now. It is necessary to be flexible in the time of managing retail gasoline prices during times of high price fluctuations to avoid negative impacts on gasoline supply and business efficiency of gasoline enterprises. Immediately adjust outdated costs related to gasoline business according to the principle of correct and complete calculation, including premium of imported sources...
| In Hai Duong province, there are currently 266 retail petrol stations, managed by 189 traders. Of these, there is 1 main trader, 2 units are branches under the main trader, 1 unit manages a transit warehouse; 9 distributors and 176 other traders are owners of petrol stations. |
HUYEN TRANG
