DECISION

ON BASIC SELLING PRICES OF PETROL AND OIL IN 2005

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE

Pursuant to Decree 77/2003/ND-CP of the Government dated 1 July 2003 regulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Pursuant to Decree 170/2003/ND-CP of the Government dated 25 December 2003 providing detailed regulations for implementation of a number of articles of the Ordinance on Prices;

Pursuant to Decision 187-2003-QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated 15 September 2003 promulgating the Regulations on Management of Business of Petrol and Oil;
To implement the directive of the Prime Minister in Official Letter 476/VPCP-KTTH of the Government Office dated 02 July 2005 notifying the opinion of the Prime Minister on the adjustment of prices of petrol and oil;

Upon agreement with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Planning and Investment,

DECIDES:

Article 1 - Basic selling prices (including value added tax) of petrol and oil of a number of standard types at the actual temperature shall be provided uniformly throughout the country as follows:

Enterprises engaged in oil and petrol import shall decide (or authorise subsidiaries or agents in their distribution network) to decide the actual selling prices of petrol and oil in accordance with the current guidelines provided by the Ministry of Trade.

Enterprises engaged in business of oil and petrol shall decide prices of oil and petrol of other types on the basis of the actual selling prices of oil and petrol of the standard types in the market, and the difference of their quality in comparison with the oil and petrol of the above-mentioned types.

Article 2 – Places of sale:

-Wholesale: goods shall be delivered at central warehouses of provinces and cities in buyers’ vehicles;

-Retail sale: goods shall be sold at filling stations or retail outlets in provinces, cities in buyers’ vehicles.

Article 3 – Responsibilities of ministries, branches, localities and business and production entities:

- Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s instruction, despite increasing the selling prices of petrol and oil, any increase in the selling prices of essential products such as electricity, coal, cement and so forth shall not be permitted. Enterprises must save on costs, especially of petrol and oil, reduce the product price. Petrol and oil trading enterprises shall continue to reduce management expenses by 5% compared with 2004.

 - The Ministry of Trade shall be responsible for directing petrol and oil trading enterprises to carry out an inventory of goods in accordance with the applicable regulations upon adjustment of prices in order to ensure that no negative acts occur and trading activities of goods are conducted smoothly.

- Petrol and oil import enterprises engaged shall be jointly responsible to the law for any breaches of the selling prices of petrol and oil by their subsidiaries or retail agents in the distribution network of respective enterprises.

 - Where there are big changes in the prices of oil and petrol in the world market, the Vietnam National Petroleum Import - Export Corporation and other enterprises which are assigned by the State with the duty to import and trade oil and petrol shall be responsible for balancing supply and demand and satisfying all needs for petrol and oil subject to their assigned duty.

- Finance departments of provinces and cities shall, in co-ordination with the departments of trade, be responsible for inspecting the implementation of selling prices of oil and petrol in their respective localities, timely identifying breaches and dealing with them depending on their authority in accordance with the applicable laws or reporting them to authorised bodies for resolution.

Article 4 – This Decision shall take its effect from 12:00am on 3 July 2005 and shall replace the Decision No. 17/2005/QD-BTC of the Minister of Finance dated 29 March 2005.