VINACHEM

The Finance Ministry published its first edition of quarterly statistics related to the management and use of the fuel price stabilisation fund on its website on July 9.

This disclosure was made pursuant to a request made by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh on May 3, when he asked the Finance Ministry to publicise the data on the fund every quarter on its website to provide transparency.

According to the Finance Ministry, the fund balance at the end of June was over VND55 billion (US$2.6 million), a decrease of roughly VND700 billion (US$33 million) when compared to last year's figures.

Since 2009, the fund balance has never been in the red and has always been in the black and had reached as high VND1,800 billion (US$84.6 million) in 2010.

It was reduced to roughly VND1,500 billion (US$70.5 million) in 2011, VND740 (US$34.8 million) in 2012 and down to VND55 billion at the end of June 2013.

Seven out of 12 companies using the stabilisation funds now have positive fund balances such as Vietnam National Petroleum Group and Military Petroleum Corporation.

Currently, fuel companies must extract VND300 per kg or litre of oil and petrol to add to the price stabilisation fund to be used for the purpose of price stabilisation.