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Vietnam to stop subsidizing oil price in 2008

Vietnam to stop subsidizing oil price in 2008

Write: Raimy [2011-05-20]
HANOI, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will stop subsidizing the prices of oil and petroleum products and some other industrial items such as coal and cement starting from next year, local newspaper Pioneer reported Thursday.

Vietnam has annually compensated some 10 trillion Vietnamese dong (625 million U.S. dollars) for prices oil and petroleum products in recent years, the paper quoted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as saying at a local finance meeting on Wednesday.

Stopping the compensation will help save state money to deal with more urgent issues, he said.

The country will also not compensate loss for cement and coal industries, Dung said, noting that Vietnam has not encouraged exports of coal and ores. The country should consider imposing higher taxes on the products to limit their export and save energy, meeting the long-term domestic demand for them.

Besides, Vietnam will gradually limit and eventually stop compensating losses for its electricity industry, which has yet to meet domestic demand, said the prime minister.

Vietnam imported nearly 10.4 million tons of petroleum products worth over 5.8 billion dollars in the first 10 months of this year, posting year-on-year rises of 12.1 percent and 16 percent, respectively, according to the General Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, it exported over 12.4 million tons of crude oil totaling nearly 6.6 billion dollars, down 9.9 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.