Mr. Bui Danh Lien

Could you tell us about the impact of the increase in gasoline prices on the current business operations?

The current sharp increase in gasoline prices is having a great impact on all aspects of economic life and people. For enterprises, after the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the high price of raw materials and the increase in gasoline prices also creates a great risk of disrupting the supply chain, negatively affecting the recovery of the economy. Therefore, we need to closely monitor market movements as well as find solutions to restrain gasoline price increases.

The increase in the price of input materials will cause the operating costs of enterprises to increase. Previously, the cost of gasoline accounted for about 35-40% of the cost. Now, it accounts for 45-50% of the operating cost of the transport enterprises. The higher costs are, the more difficult it is for enterprises to be profitable, many transport enterprises have had to leave their vehicles "logged" at the yard, unable to operate in order to endure through the difficult period.

How will this affect the capital of enterprises?

Of course, when enterprises incur high costs they can’t make a profit which greatly affects capital. But for many transport enterprises, due to difficult operations, they do not focus much on investing and purchasing more equipment, so capital is not a big problem. However, when the economy stabilizes again, they have to find a way to borrow money.

The problem for most Vietnamese enterprises in general, and transport enterprises in particular, is the difficulty in accessing capital. To borrow capital, banks all have strict regulations on collateral, cash flow for repayment and credit rating of the enterprises. Moreover, capital sources with normal interest rates are difficult for them to access and preferential interest rates such as programs being implemented by many banks as well as interest rate support program 2% of the Government, enterprises are still struggling to know how to approach.

With the above problems, in your opinion, what is the solution to support enterprises in the current price increase?

First, in terms of capital, enterprises need practical support policies, or agencies to guarantee loans for them. For enterprises in the transportation industry, where the cost of gasoline is greatly increasing, I hope that the management agencies can advance a certain amount of money to support and compensate these firms for a certain period of time. Currently, the state's resources are still pouring into infrastructure investment projects, but if transport enterprises have to "lay still" because they do not have operating costs, it is very wasteful and will not support the recovery of economy.

Regarding gasoline prices, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have provided a lot of support to ensure a reasonable increase level in price, in which the resolution of the Ministry of Finance on reducing tax on environmental protection of gasoline is a positive. But in my opinion, the management agencies should make a change to find cheaper sources of gasoline and production materials, and be able to socialize the import supply, as well as manage gasoline. The State can also offer a gasoline support package to support gasoline prices and stabilize production and transport activities of enterprises.

Thank you, Sir!