Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said on the sidelines of the legislative National Assembly’s sitting yesterday that the government will have no alternative but to raise domestic gasoline prices if world prices keep on rising. Currently, the latter are nearly US$100 a barrel.
Mr. Hung told Sai Gon Giai Phong reporter that “we are being pushed to the corner [where we must raise prices]…the time to raise [petrol] prices is coming near”.
Delaying the price hike only means the government will have to subsidize the fuel and subsidization is against market regulations, especially after the country joined the WTO early this year, he said.
Besides, it would encourage smuggling, he added.
“We must accept price increases as part of a healthy market economy. What we should do now is to minimize the bad impacts from such increases”.
In related news, sources from the Ministry of Finance said that despite the price surge on the world market, no local petrol distributor has sought permission to raise retail prices. It should be noted that import tariff on the fuel now stands at zero.
