Vietnam spent a total of US$13 billion on buying petrol, oil, and other petroleum products over the past 10 months of the year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

It gained 19 per cent in volume and 36.8 per cent in value.

Vietnam's petrol and oil imports increased sharply in the first two months of 2023, reaching 1.7 billion USD, a surge of 56.3% year on year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has reported.

Vietnam imported more than one million m3 of oil and petrol worth around US$911 million in January, up 24.1% in volume and 11% in value over the previous month.

Vietnam spent around US$8.12 billion importing 7.89 million tons of fuel between January and November, up 23.9% in volume and 119.6% in value versus the year-ago period, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) says that petroleum companies will shift to importing fuels from Southeast Asia instead of South Korea.

The past nine months of the year saw Vietnam import over 6.5 million tonnes of petroleum worth US$6.833 billion, up 22.7% in volume and 131.8% in value year on year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has scheduled to submit a plan on reducing petrol and oil taxes to the National Assembly for approval at its October meeting.

The Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) decision on setting the commission ceiling level at VND430 per liter has faced the strong opposition from agents. Analysts believe the “commission war” would last a long time.