MoIT asks for rice export tax exemption

The Ministry of Information and Trade (MoIT) has asked the Ministry of Finance to exempt rice from export taxes in a move to boost exports.

Higher exports would help push up rice purchases and help farmers, MoIT said.

In the past two months, domestic rice exporters have bought a large volume of rice from farmers, according to Government instructions.

The Government imposed a tax on rice exports in July for fear of food shortages. The rice export tax scheme is only applied to the best quality rice. Tax rates range from VND800,000 (US$48.5) to VND2.9 million (US$175.7) per tonne.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, the country has so far this year exported more than 3.7 million tonnes of rice, so exporters need to ship another 1 million tonnes of rice in the remaining months of the year to meet the annual export target of 4.7 million tonnes.

VOV

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