Vietnam’s retail fuel prices continued the downtrend of 2014 and fell slightly on Tuesday amid the global dip.
The price of the country’s most popular gasoline grade 92-octane (92 RON) dropped VND310, or 1.7 percent, to VND17,570 (82 US cents) a liter.
Diesel price went down VND360 to VND16,630 a liter, kerosene down VND290 to VND17,110, and mazut down VND200 to VND12,930 a kilogram.
The drop represented the 13th consecutive fuel price cut since July, more than two weeks after the record cut of ten percent brought the pump price of 92-RON to the lowest in four years.
The Finance Ministry meanwhile increased fuel import tariffs for the second time in a month, by another 7-8 percentage points to 30-35 percent.
According to the ministry’s new tax regulations issued in December, it can impose the tariffs to the maximum 40 percent when global crude oil prices drop to below $60 a barrel.
WTI oil price has fallen to $50.04 a barrel on January 5 and Brent oil to $53, a 55 percent drop from last June.
The global 92-RON gasoline price in Singapore, Vietnam’s major supplier, has dropped to $60.26 a barrel, and diesel to $69.46 a barrel.