As of the third quarter of this year, the balance of the fuel price stabilisation fund had risen to nearly 2.3 trillion VND, the highest since the use of the fund was made known to the public, the Saigon Times Daily reported.

The Ministry of Finance in a report released on October 8 said petrol traders in the third quarter alone collected over 1.1 trillion VND from consumers for the fund, which is used to compensate oil traders for losses they incur when the input cost is higher than the retail price.

In the quarter, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade let fuel trading firms extract an estimated 403.46 billion VND from the fund.

The fund’s balance was recorded at nearly 1.6 trillion VND at the end of the second quarter , but the amount surged to around 2.3 trillion VND at the end of the third quarter. The fund is kept at oil traders who have to periodically report their balances to the Finance Ministry.

In 2013, the balance frequently stayed at only tens of billions of dong, with many oil traders reporting a deficit, meaning the sum collected from consumers was not sufficient to compensate traders.

However, the balance has started picking up this year, from 840 billion VND in the first quarter to 1.5 trillion VND in the following quarter, as the global oil price has steadily fallen while the local price has remained high.

The Ministry of Finance’s report also indicated 15 out of 17 fuel trading firms had the positive balance, with Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) reporting 1.352 trillion VND and PetroVietnam Oil Corporation over 265 billion VND.

Speaking to the Daily on October 8, the leader of a fuel trading firm said the prices of finished petrol products in Singapore had been going down.

Therefore, there is a likelihood that the domestic retail price may decline by up to 500 VND per liter of petrol soon. RON 92 petrol is currently priced at 23,560 VND per liter.-VNA