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HCM City’s tax collections in the year’s first half are estimated to rise to 46.5 trillion VND, with completely built-up auto imports contributing a major part, reported The Saigon Times Daily.

The HCM City Customs Department put imports of under-nine-seat CBU autos in January-June at 330 million USD, up a staggering 200 percent against a year ago. This strong increase contributes an additional 5 trillion VND to the city’s tax revenue in the period.

HCM City is one of the localities with high CBU auto imports. Imported autos are currently subject to import duty, special consumption tax, value-added tax (VAT) and registration fee.

Besides, the higher tax revenue in the city in the period is credited to more tax collections from steel, apparel, footwear, computers and components. For example, steel imports have gone up by around 60 million USD year-on-year, resulting in a tax increase of some 300 billion VND.

Fuel imports have seen a decline of 20 percent as the world oil price has dropped significantly. However, tax and fee collections from fuels remain stable as their environmental protection fees have tripled for certain products since May 1.

The department said of the 46.5 trillion VND, export and import tax collections account for 19 trillion VND and VAT 27.5 trillion VND. The total figure represents nearly 52 percent of the whole year’s target.

However, the city has seen tax collections in some areas shrinking. The VAT exemption of imported fertilizers, animal feed and materials, agricultural machines and tools, and offshore fishing boats since the beginning of this year has led to a loss of some 1.6 trillion VND.

In addition, budget collections will lose approximately 1 trillion VND as Vietnam is lowering import tariffs to fulfill its commitments to the free trade agreements with other countries.

This year, the Customs Law allows enterprises to conduct export and import procedures at any customs offices. Therefore, HCM City cannot collect taxes for the goods which are imported via ports in HCM City but importers register for customs clearance in other localities.

Source: VNA