The Ministry of Finance has told fuel wholesalers to limit their useof the price stabilisation fund from 300 VND to 200 VND per litre.

The decision was announced in Dispatch No14239/BTC-QLG on fuel pricemanagement, in which the ministry said it would keep fuel prices, importtariffs and deductions for the price stabilization fund unchanged.

Currently, the reference price of gasoline is 24,084 VND per litre,while the retail price is around 23,880 VND per litre.

Similarly, each litre of diesel and kerosene is now sold for 22,310VND and 22,020 VND, while their reference prices are 22,902 VND and22,934 VND respectively.

For diesel, the ministryhas permitted fuel wholesalers to continue earning commissions of 100VND per litre and charging 300 VND per litre to the price stabilisationfund to limit price increases.

Petrol hubs sellingkerosene are expected to retain earnings of 100 VND per litre and reducethe use of the price stabilisation fund to 700 VND from 800 VND.

For mazut, traders will continue to take 200 VND per litre from the fund.

The price stabilisation fund was reported to be sitting at 58.6billion VND (2.7 million USD) at the end of September, after rising over3 billion VND (141,911 USD), the Ministry of Finance stated on itswebsite.

According to the latest statistics, of the12 petrol dealers who contributed to the fund, six had a positive fundbalance. Petrolimex's September balance stayed over 205 billion VND (9.7million USD), while the Military Petroleum Corporation with over 180billion VND.

Meanwhile, as of September 30, PVOilreported a negative fund balance of more than 209 billion VND (9.88million USD), while Petec Trading & Investment Corporation also saw aloss of over 145 billion VND (6.86 million USD).

Recently, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung stated that the ministrywould publish data on a quarterly basis rather than each month tominimise costs to relevant agencies.-VNA