HCMC – Tens of gas stations have been fined for hoarding fuel or suspending operations without permits, while several are facing a revocation of business licenses, the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance announced today, February 22.
From January 28 to February 21, the directorate’s inspection teams conducted nearly 16,000 checks and inspections into filling stations nationwide.
In Ha Tinh Province, after an inspection into the Son Tra gas station, the inspection team discovered the station without the distributor’s name on its signboard that had suspended operations, although it has yet to ask the competent agencies for approval. As such, the station was fined VND30 million.
The Son Linh gas station got a fine of VND15 million as it suspended operations while awaiting the nod from the competent agencies.
In Quang Binh Province, the competent forces levied a fine of VND15 million on a gas station for its unannounced suspension.
Facing the same fate, a gas station in Thai Nguyen Province got a fine of VND10 million.
The inspection forces also discovered three gas stations in Hanoi that had suspended business for different reasons, including dispute resolution, Covid infections and shortage of fuel.
The southern region has over 6,530 filling stations, with 29 suspending operations as they ran out of fuel and 215 others closing for different reasons.
In HCMC, which has 548 filling stations, five gas stations are shutting down temporarily, while 22 others are facing a shortage of RON95 petrol.
Hau Giang Province saw two filling stations fined and face a revocation of business licenses due to their unannounced suspension.
Elsewhere in Vinh Long Province in the Mekong Delta region, a filling station was fined as it failed to inform the competent agencies that it was running out of fuel, while in Soc Trang Province, a gas station got a fine and had its business license revoked for violating fuel trading.
The directorate’s inspection teams will continue to watch the business operations of gas stations nationwide and conduct unannounced inspections to promptly discover violations in fuel trading.
Apart from the directorate’s inspection teams, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has established several inspection teams to check the fuel supply of petrol and oil wholesale distributors.
