The Ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade on June 14 allowed key petroleum dealers to raise the price of gasoline by a maximum of 426 VND (2 US cents) and diesel by no more than 221 VND (1 US cent) per litre.

The highest retail price will therefore be 23,756 VND (1.12 USD) for a litre of RON 92 gasoline and 21,471 VND (1.02 USD) for a litre of diesel.

Kerosene and fuel oil prices remained unchanged at 21,300 VND (1.01 USD) and 18,450 VND (0.88 USD) respectively.

The ministries said they made the decision following market developments.

After global petroleum prices tended to go up early last month, the Ministry of Finance cut import taxes for the commodities from 19 percent to 18 percent and enabled firms to use the price stabilisation fund with subsidy levels of 160-400 VND per litre.

But world prices continued to rise since then and the adjustments on June 14 were necessary to harmonise the interest of enterprises and customers.

This was the first price increase since the end of April after three consecutive cuts. Petroleum prices hit a record high of 24,580 VND (1.17 USD) per litre in March.-VNA