Need to soon establish a trading floor for the petroleum business sector

Distributors want to buy from multiple sources.

In a document sent to the Prime Minister, petroleum distribution and retail businesses said they were "forgotten" when the Ministry of Industry and Trade drafted a completely new Decree on petroleum trading.

Mr. Hoang Trung Dung - General Director of Petroleum Additives and Products Development Joint Stock Company (APP) said that the current system and model of managing and operating the petroleum market still has potential risks in ensuring energy security. Therefore, it is necessary to have reforms in thinking, approach and problem solving.

"We can learn from the previous telecommunications market and the recent electricity market that the breakthrough in management policy that has been and is taking place is liberalizing business towards competition, gradually reducing the pivotal and dominant role of one or a few key petroleum trading enterprises," said Mr. Dung.

According to Mr. Dung, it is necessary to liberalize, not classify or discriminate, and respect the business autonomy of enterprises in choosing the form of organization, location, scale, business partners and form of service provision on the basis of law.

Businesses believe that only when there is true competition can the petroleum market operate healthily. Photo: Phan Anh

"It is necessary to abolish the hierarchy and classification of petroleum traders, and instead give traders the right to freely conduct business and equality, as long as they meet the business conditions prescribed by law. Distribution enterprises can purchase goods from many sources, including petroleum producers.

For petroleum key enterprises, it is necessary to split into two independent units (import and distribution, retail) to avoid market manipulation and monopolization as the Government Inspectorate's conclusion pointed out in January 2024," Mr. Dung said.

The petroleum retail business community believes that the new Decree on petroleum trading should consider abolishing a number of other inappropriate issues related to regulations on licensing conditions, fire prevention and fighting, and environmental protection regulations that hinder, affect, and are costly for businesses when many procedures are considered unnecessary.

The fact that retail businesses are signed to take from many sources also raises new issues about measurement and quality in the petroleum business. Therefore, the management agency needs to specify the level of responsibility of each stage in the measurement and quality of petroleum.

It is necessary to have a petrol trading floor.

Speaking with Lao Dong, Mr. Vu Vinh Phu - former Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Hanoi City said that in order for the petroleum market to operate in the most open and transparent manner - a trading floor should be established.

This will create a healthy market that operates according to market principles, with buyers and sellers willing to buy, no one forcing anyone, and buying wherever is cheap and convenient. Wholesale and retail transaction prices are calculated by businesses themselves, with profits and losses borne by them. No more begging, no more discounts, no ceiling prices, no base prices. Completely cut off the Stabilization Fund using people's money because it is ineffective.

"This also eliminates interest groups manipulating the petroleum market as it is today. Eliminates the mechanism of asking for and giving, promoting the development of the market economy. Establishing a trading floor also helps the agency manage the quality of goods, manage smuggled goods, counterfeit goods, low-quality goods, and floating goods of petroleum," said Mr. Phu.

"When the exchange is established, all businesses must trade there, including the two domestic oil refineries, without exception. When participating in the exchange, businesses need to balance their business activities to be most effective, they cannot rely on the "milk" of the State," said Mr. Phu.

Source: https://laodong.vn/kinh-doanh/can-som-lap-san-giao-dich-linh-vuc-kinh-doanh-xang-dau-1359081.ldo