Petroleum wholesale enterprises profited by thousands of billions, retailers received 0 VND discount

Impact on energy security and economic development

On January 4, the Government Inspectorate pointed out the existence and inadequacies in the purchase and sale of petroleum by key enterprises, causing the petroleum trading system to be disrupted.

According to the inspection conclusion, the obligation and responsibility of the main petroleum traders is to implement the total petroleum supply allocated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade annually and to stabilize the market when necessary, but the main petroleum trading enterprises buy and sell petroleum from each other.

This leads to the situation where the main traders become distributors, buying and selling through intermediaries, increasing the cost of circulation. In particular, Nam Phuc Investment Joint Stock Company acted as an intermediary in buying and selling gasoline, to enjoy the price difference with an amount of up to more than 2 billion VND.

Key enterprises cheat to gain thousands of billions, while retail enterprises enjoy zero discounts. Photo: Phan Anh

"In the past 5 years, some key petroleum traders have traded petroleum with each other to enjoy discounts, the price difference is up to 9,770 billion VND. Since then, the discounts of agents and retail stores have been reduced, even there is no discount money left.

This is one of the reasons why agents and retail stores suffer losses and stop selling, causing disruptions in supply to the market, directly affecting consumers, energy security and economic development," the inspection conclusion stated.

Unfair and inefficient management

Stating responsibility for the inadequate import of petroleum, the Government Inspectorate said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the agency that coordinates the volume of imported petroleum and the total petroleum source to meet domestic petroleum consumption needs.

However, this ministry does not guide and manage key traders in importing petroleum on a quarterly basis, leading to no general plan or progress for management.

Many traders do not import gasoline, do not give clear reasons or the reasons are not suitable, the time to send reports is slower than prescribed but all are approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Notably, the inspection conclusion also determined that the key traders have the same role, but due to the lack of objective and fair management and operation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, some key traders have to perform the tasks of some other key traders. Therefore, many traders do not fully perform their tasks when necessary. For example, assigning 10 key traders to import additional output, while there are 32 key traders importing.

“This shows that in cases where the supply of petroleum is urgently needed, the management of petroleum import and export by the Ministry of Industry and Trade is ineffective. This is one of the reasons leading to the interruption of petroleum supply,” the inspection conclusion stated.

The Government Inspectorate stated that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has loose management, lack of inspection and supervision, and has not strictly handled or promptly corrected the situation, leading to complicated developments in petroleum trading activities, many illegal trading activities, and violations of the principles stipulated in Decree No. 83 on petroleum trading.

Source