The oil and gas giant has also said in a proposal to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance that value added tax (VAT) on exports of products processed from crude oil be lifted so it can reduce its inventory.

It noted that with domestic consumption falling 30 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, up to 90 percent of its storage space at the Dung Quat Oil Refinery and Nghi Son Refinery was taken up with unsold stock.

The Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Jsc (BSR), a PetroVietnam subsidiary that operates the two refineries, said another reason for the rising inventory was imports accounting for 35 percent of domestic supply in the first quarter.

With rising inventory and plummeting oil prices, BSR reported a loss of VND228 billion ($9.8 million) in the first two months after years of making profit.

Petrovietnam’s after-tax profit in the first quarter dropped by half to VND4.4 trillion ($189 million), and the company could lose up to VND141 trillion ($6 billion) in revenues this year, according to a recent report by the Commission for Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC).

An official of the Domestic Market Department under the trade ministry said that the current low oil prices will benefit Vietnamese importers, adding that Petrovietnam’s proposal was being considered.

Vietnam’s fuel and coal inventory as of March 31 was 47 percent higher than the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.