Ministry of Industry and Trade informs about 'discounts' in petroleum business

Photo caption — People buy gasoline at a gas station. Photo: VNA

According to the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ), in business activities, a discount is an amount that a business reduces the price for customers who buy goods in large quantities.

Specifically, the discount rate in the petroleum business is the discount rate of the petroleum selling enterprise to the petroleum buying enterprise compared to the retail price of petroleum. The discount rate is flexibly adjusted by the petroleum selling enterprises (reflecting the market), depending on the fluctuations of supply and demand, prices in the world and domestic markets.

According to the representative of the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development, the current legal regulations on petroleum trading in Vietnam do not stipulate the discount rate. The State only creates the environment, manages, operates and regulates the ceiling price of retail petroleum products (to protect the interests of consumers and manage the macro economy ), does not regulate the discount rate in petroleum trading of enterprises. The high or low discount depends on the business relationship of the enterprise and the business contract between enterprises.

Decree 80/2023/ND-CP of the Government amending a number of articles of Decree 95/2021/ND-CP and Decree 83/2014/ND-CP on petroleum trading has allowed petroleum retail agents to sign contracts to act as agents for 3 main traders or petroleum distributors, which has also opened up more options for petroleum retail agents in terms of supply sources. Petroleum retail agents will choose traders to supply their goods with reasonable discounts.

Current regulations on petroleum trading are gradually following the market mechanism and moving towards applying petroleum prices completely according to the market mechanism in the spirit of Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 of the Politburo on the orientation of Vietnam's national energy development strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045 and the direction of the Government Standing Committee in Document No. 175/TB-VPCP dated April 13, 2025.

Accordingly, in the past 2 weeks, the world oil market has fluctuated due to conflicts in the Middle East, causing world oil prices to increase, the risk of supply disruption, many key traders have reduced the oil discount for agents to 500 VND, or 100 - 200 VND. However, by June 25, 2025, due to positive signals from negotiations in the Middle East, oil prices have decreased, the risk of supply shortage has also decreased, so the discounts of key enterprises have also increased again.

The discount rate of gasoline of some key enterprises on June 30, 2025 such as: Phuc Lam Company is 2,600 VND; Military Petroleum Corporation is 1,800 - 2,300 VND (depending on the region); Vietnam Oil Corporation is 2,300 - 2,400 VND; Saigon Petro gasoline is 1,600 VND, oil is 1,400 VND; Petrolimex has a rate of 1,700 - 1,900 VND (depending on the product).

Thus, when participating in business in the market, agents and retail stores of gasoline need to accept the rules of the market, subject to market regulation (supply, demand, price), so they need to have their own business plan to respond when the market fluctuates. For example, when world gasoline prices are low and supply is abundant, key and distribution enterprises can set high discount rates for retail companies.

However, when world oil prices increase or are forecast to increase, supply becomes scarcer, retail companies may have to accept low discounts, even negative discounts, but still have to import goods to maintain business operations, in return for enjoying high discounts.

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/kinh-te/bo-cong-thuong-thong-tin-ve-chiet-khau-trong-kinh-doanh-xang-dau/20250702085057814