Gas enterprises still have many concerns about new draft

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Gas business enterprises still have many difficulties in the regulations on business conditions. Photo: ST

Cannot implement

Decree 19/2016/ND-CP on gas business (Decree 19) took effect from mid-2016, but it immediately encountered objections and recommendations from enterprises and associations. Many businesses stated that this draft decree did not get comments publically and did not get reflections from enterprises and associations, thus there were many shortcomings arising in implementation, causing difficulties for enterprises.

However, enterprises quickly removed the burden when the Minister of Industry and Trade signed the Decision approving the master plan on administrative procedure simplification in the State management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2017 which eliminates and simplifies 18 regulations on gas business.

Regarding this, Mr. Ha Thanh Tung, Director of Dong Tung Trading and Production Trading Co., Ltd - Ha Giang said that if the time for implementation of Decree 19 is extended, many gas retail enterprises in the localities may stop working because they cannot meet the requirements of the State.

Understanding the concerns and desires of enterprises, the draft Decree was compiled by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and consulted from enterprises. However, this draft still has many unreasonable points for many enterprises, the ministries and branches should get comments to amend each specific point and consult widely with many local enterprises and different types of enterprises.

Mr. Nguyen Van Giam, Deputy Director of Vietnam Petroleum Equipment and Supplies Joint Stock Company recommended that the Decree on gas business should focus on contents of fire safety, energy security and trade fraud reduction, anti-counterfeit and imitation goods and other conditions should be applied as normal goods, because nowadays, these companies are also facing many difficulties due to competition with reduction of the oil price.

Typically, a LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) bottle sold in the market must meet conditions on inspection, trademark registration and paint colors as described. Mr. Nguyen Khac Tri, Deputy General Director of Gas Petrolimex Corporation suggested that the conditions on paint colors should be abolished because this is the content stating the standards of facilities of traders, the State does not protect the individual color of the bottle, but protects the overall trademark of goods including the color of the bottle.

Do not be barriers

In general, gas enterprises are very interested in the regulations on business conditions in this decree, because with the spirit of tectonic and serving Government, enterprises expect that there are not barriers for enterprises in business and enterprises will comply with reasonable conditions to ensure the safety and the law’s compliance.

According to Mr. Ha Thanh Tung, the clauses should separate each type of business, and retail business must be different from the wholesale business for factories and manufacturing facilities. Especially when some business conditions are causing difficulties for retail businesses, mainly small and micro enterprises.

“Clause 6, Article 23 of the draft Decree on the rights and obligations of gas traders provided the submission of trademark registration to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. This regulation will make it difficult for businesses because some gas extraction stations with private brand will be implement immediately, but with the general agent or agents cannot have their own brands, because they do not own their gas shells, they only implement the sales of goods.

“If the general agents or agents use trademark of another unit, that will cause overlap, because a trademark can be sold to 10 traders, then 10 traders cannot send the trademark registration to the Ministry, also, the trademark does not belong to traders. Therefore, sending the trademark is only for reporting and should be received by the Department of Industry and Trade," Mr. Tung suggested.

Also expressing concerns about some regulations in the draft Decree, Nguyen Van Giam commented on assigning the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to inspect and supervise the compliance of regulations on prices of the gas leading traders. He suggested that the supervision on prices should be more specified because prices of the leading gas enterprises will change depending on customers’ conditions, for example: prices for customers in short distance will be different from prices for customers in far distance, so it is difficult for leading enterprises to report and give a general price.

The amendment of the business conditions for gas enterprises is determined and formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the principle of ensuring equality for all enterprises, not distinguishing types and economic sectors in the opportunity to access resources such as: capital, resources, land and business investment; supporting small and medium size enterprises, and start-up businesses. Therefore, the business conditions must be clear, transparent and easy to implement and have an appropriate timetable to soon abandon unreasonable sub-licenses, fees and surcharges

Proposal for rejecting conditions of gas business VCN - Decree No. 19/2016 / ND-CP on gas business have generated problems after a period of ...

It can be seen that there are many targets set, but enterprises are waiting for specific actions of ministries and branches, and first of all, that is the adoption of opinions from enterprises to adjust and complete the draft decree on gas business, facilitation for enterprises in production and business; and not let these conditions become the barriers for the efforts for development of enterprises.