Vietnamese consumers expect the car price will go down after the Ministry of Finance lowered the import tax rate on brand new cars to 70 per cent from the current level of 80 per cent.
An official from the Ministry of Finance said that the tax reduction aimed to speed up the process of implementing WTO commitments on car taxation, and cool down the current car fever.
The official said that the domestic car market was now facing a prolonged fever resulted from short supply. “This trend should be ended soon.”
Car traders said that with the 10 per cent tax reduction, imported cars will be 16 per cent cheaper. As such, an imported car which previously had the declared value of US$20,000 will now have the declared value of US$17,000.
Nevertheless, experts say that the tax reduction may not cause price decreases immediately, because price depends on supply and demand, while the supply is very short now.
Buyers of Toyota Camry 2007 will not have deliveries until November 2007, while buyers of GM Daewoo Captiva will wait until early 2008 to get the cars
However, many expressed their suspect over significant decrease, citing the ineffectiveness of price reduction in from 90 per cent to 80 per cent in January.
This cut was unable to drive down the price by 15 per cent as expected.
According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), car sales by its 16 carmakers rose 82 per cent to 34,998 units in the first seven months this year.
Domestic economists are concerned that by cutting import tariffs on 18 categories including automobiles by the Ministry of Finance August 8, Vietnam’s state coffer will be hurt inevitably. (VietNamNet, Vneconomy)
Vietnamese
