The Transparency Problem with ​Việt Nam’s Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund

​Established as a state tool to regulate fuel prices during periods of market volatility, the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund (BOG) is maintained by the public. The fund is built from money extracted from consumers each time they purchase fuel. [1] Despite existing for nearly two decades, the BOG Fund still has extremely limited details regarding how it is spent.

​As of Sept. 30, 2025, the latest report from the Ministry of Finance stated that the BOG Fund still held more than 5.6 trillion đồng ($220 million USD). [2] That figure had fallen by more than 400 billion đồng compared to the end-of-2024 report. [3]  

​While the state continues to disclose the remaining balance, it offers no insight into where the money goes. Since 2023, there has been no public information regarding the fund’s expenditures.

How the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund Operates

​Established in 2009 under Decision No. 04/2009/QĐ-TTg, signed by then-Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, the Petroleum Price Stabilization Fund requires public contributions to stabilize market fuel prices. [4] 

Article 2 of the decision explains how it will be managed, saying, “Assign the Ministry of Finance to take the lead, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade: Based on fluctuations in global and domestic prices, stipulate appropriate contribution levels at each point; guide the operational mechanism, management, and use of the fund.”  

​By regulation, consumers replenish this fund through a fixed contribution of roughly 300 đồng per liter when purchasing fuel. [5] While this amount is subject to adjustment based on domestic fuel prices, the practical reality remains the same: consumers must contribute to the fund on top of the product’s actual value and all legally required taxes and fees.

​The state budget does not receive these consumer contributions. The funds are instead deposited into separate bank accounts managed by 27 major petroleum distributors, including Petrolimex and PVOIL. From there, the Ministry of Industry and Trade directs all withdrawals and expenditures in accordance with inter-ministerial government decisions. [6]

Fuel Prices Remain Unstable

​Driven by conflict in the Middle East, domestic fuel prices have risen continuously since early March, with the volatility showing no signs of stopping. On March 24, the price of RON 95 gasoline surpassed 33,000 đồng per liter, and kerosene exceeded 40,000 đồng per liter after a steady climb. [7] [8]

By April 29, the price of RON 95 gasoline—excluding value-added and environmental taxes—fell to over 23,000 đồng per liter, while diesel oil remained above 28,000 đồng per liter. [9]

​These prices remain disproportionately high relative to the average worker’s income. An office worker in Hồ Chí Minh City told Luật Khoa reporters that his daily 20-kilometer commute used to cost around 200,000 đồng per week. Recently, his fuel expenses surged while his salary remained stagnant, exacerbating the pressure of broader inflation-driven living costs.

According to Người Lao Động newspaper, companies are also enduring severe hardship due to rising input costs, particularly because up to 70% of production inputs are imported. [10] Coupled with weak market demand, businesses are trapped in a difficult position, debating whether to continue struggling or temporarily suspend projects and wait for conditions to improve.

​Despite these economic pressures, the government failed to respond promptly to global petroleum fluctuations in early March 2026. It was not until mid-March, after prices had already surged, that authorities issued an urgent directive requiring businesses to utilize the BOG Fund to restrain costs. [11] 

Shortly after, the government announced that it would deploy additional state budget resources to subsidize prices, promising that “once the crisis passes, money from the fund will be used to repay the budget.” [12]

From the end of 2023 through early 2026, the government never ordered the use of the BOG Fund during any price adjustment periods, even when RON 95 gasoline topped 25,000 đồng per liter in 2024. [13] 

In contrast, during the 2017–2021 period, when fuel prices were relatively lower, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance approved BOG Fund expenditures totaling 1.142 trillion đồng. [14]

​When domestic prices were most vulnerable to global shocks, the BOG Fund failed its primary mandate, acting merely as a bureaucratic intermediary. Citizens have paid substantial sums into the fund for years, but the unclear benefits have prompted debate over whether the fund should be abolished or heavily reformed.

​Associate Professor Dr. Ngô Trí Long argues that the state should consider abolishing the fund, noting it is no longer necessary and has failed to mitigate price risks. [15] He pointed out that the fund has historically operated without transparency, allowing businesses to appropriate capital, enabling management abuses, and occasionally destabilizing the market. 

PVOIL Chairman Cao Hoài Dương echoed this sentiment, arguing: “The state established the fund with good intentions to support citizens, but now people do not feel those good intentions, and they strongly oppose the fund, so why maintain it?” [16]

​Furthermore, a 2025 study in the journal Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies concluded that the BOG Fund failed to stabilize fuel prices in Việt Nam, instead generating administrative costs and unintended consequences. [17] 

The study’s author suggested that to regulate domestic prices effectively, the state must transition to a transparent market mechanism where domestic prices track international benchmarks, supplemented by a flexible price-based tax system rather than the existing web of taxes, fees, and stabilization funds.

Past Violations

In January 2024, the Government Inspectorate found numerous violations in the use of fund money. [18] Inspectors identified long-standing policy shortcomings that went uncorrected, alongside evidence of “passing responsibility” and “loose management” between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance.

​For instance, from Jan. 1, 2017, to April 23, 2018, unclear directives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade led 19 of the 27 major petroleum distributors to improperly contribute approximately 1.013 trillion đồng for RON 95 gasoline and to improperly spend roughly 679 billion đồng.

​The State Bank of Việt Nam was also found responsible for failing to instruct commercial banks on how to manage these accounts. As a result, companies misused the funds. Investigators discovered that 7 out of 15 major distributors used fund money for “improper purposes,” primarily by storing it in ordinary corporate payment accounts for extended periods rather than dedicated BOG Fund accounts. The total amount involved in these violations reached 7.927 trillion đồng. [19] 

Furthermore, 3 of those 7 distributors manipulated their official books, resulting in approximately 4.8 billion đồng in improper contributions and 22.6 billion đồng in improper expenditures.

​Because distributors and commercial banks failed to provide required account statements, state management agencies could not accurately track opening balances, contributions, expenditures, or accrued interest from 2017 through the end of 2021. For years, neither the state nor the public knew the exact location or usage of tens of trillions of đồng.

​The magnitude of this negligence became fully apparent to the public in 2024, following a Ministry of Public Security investigation into a massive corruption and capital appropriation scandal at Xuyên Việt Oil Transport Tourism and Trading Co. Ltd. (Xuyên Việt Oil). While the case caused state budget losses of 1.463 trillion đồng; the investigation did not specify the exact amount of BOG Fund money lost. [20]

​Similar violations occurred at Thiên Minh Đức Group Joint Stock Company, a major petroleum firm in Nghệ An Province, and at Hải Hà Petro. [21] [22] 

Between 2017 and January 2024, Hải Hà Petro should have contributed over 612 billion đồng to the fund. Instead, chairwoman and general director Trần Tuyết Mai allegedly instructed subordinates to underpay the fund and misuse the money, resulting in state losses totaling 317 billion đồng.​ Despite these massive financial scandals and numerous other historical violations involving the BOG Fund, the government has yet to take sufficiently decisive action to eradicate these practices. [23]

---

Thiên Đồng wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 7, 2026. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.