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Gov’t asked to scrap seafood import tax
"The Government should axe excise duties on seafood imports to boost the domestic economy, according to the deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP), Nguyen Huu Dung.
Speaking at a conference earlier this week, Dung said boosting imports of seafood for processing and re-export could double or even triple the investment required, if tax barriers were removed.
VASEP's deputy chairman, Ngo Phuoc Hau, said China had become the world's leading seafood exporter by importing un-processed seafood for export. He said Vietnam could emulate or surpass China, as the world's biggest seafood exporter with more Government support.
Furthermore, Hau said the additional investment required would be minimal and that there would be lucrative spin-offs in the storage, transport and packing industries.
According to VASEP, domestic seafood processors were operating well under capacity, with some reportedly producing just 30 to 50 per cent of their potential output.
Vietnam has thousands of seafood processing plants with an annual output capacity of between 1.5 to 2 million tonnes, yet they meet just 50 to 60 per cent of the domestic and international demand, said Hau.
The seafood shortage is even more acute in the disaster-prone central provinces where fishing is seasonal.
General director of Thuan Phuoc Seafood Trading Co, Tran Van Linh, said processors only had enough seafood to operate for three to five months a year. He said the sector could potentially employ thousands more workers.
Currently, Vietnam's seafood industry imports raw materials from 40 countries and territories, worth US$90 million to $100 million, equal to 4-5 per cent of the nation's seafood export turnover, said VASEP. Major seafood suppliers are India (26 per cent), China (18 per cent), ASEAN (18 per cent) and Japan (11 per cent).
To meet processors' demand, the seafood industry needs to import 8 to 10 per cent more seafood, worth roughly $190 million annually by 2010, according to VASEP.
The Government slaps a 10 to 20 per cent tax on seafood imports. Though the tax is refundable once the processed seafood is re-exported, enterprises complain that the procedures they need to follow to get a tax refund are cumbersome and time consuming.
Aside from scraping duties on seafood, VASEP said the Government should also enter into a bilateral agreement with seafood exporting nations to boost imports and cut costs.
Seafood exports topped $3.5 billion in 2007 and are expected to reach $4.25 billion this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent, according to VASEP.
VNN
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