Vietnam News Network

A Finance Ministry statement says import tax on mazut, or machine oil, is likely to be lowered to 25 percent from the current 30 percent.

Fuel retailers are reportedly incurring a loss of about VND2,000 (11.8 cents) a liter of the 92-octane gasoline as world oil prices climb to over $70 a barrel.

Vietnam imported 5.5 million tons of petroleum products worth $2.2 billion in the first five months of this year, seeing respective year-on-year declines of 5 percent and 55.3 percent, according to the General Statistics Office.

Crude oil for July delivery advanced as much as 2.3 percent, a seven-month high of $71.65 a barrel in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported. Crude traded at $71.50 at 4:22 p.m. Wednesday in Singapore, after gaining $1.92 to $70.01 Tuesday, the highest settlement since November 4.