|
Prices of some commodities on the upswing
While the government has been making every effort to fight against economic downturn and force commodity prices down, the prices of many essential commodities are likely to increase.
Dairy products’ prices rising continuously
People are now worried that the prices of dairy products will increase further. They increased many times in 2007 and 2008, and people have recently heard that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was seeking permission to raise the import taxes on milk materials.
The proposal has been made as the ministry decided that Vietnam needed to raise taxes in order to protect local farming. If the proposal is approved, some 14 dairy product items will suffer higher tax rates.
Tran Huu Duc, Communication Director of Nutifood, said that milk material prices decide production costs. Therefore, if milk material import tax rates are raised to 10-34% instead of 3-7%, dairy product price increases will be unavoidable.
Gas price skyrocketing, electricity about to increase
Electricity prices will also go up if the price increase plan suggested by the Ministry of Industry and Trade is approved by the government.
Dinh Son Hung, Deputy Head of the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, has warned that electricity price increases, big or small, will surely affect the production costs of many products, thus causing the domino effect in the national economy.
Experts have suggested that the government reconsider the electricity price thoroughly and advised it not to raise prices at this sensitive moment.
The gas price has gone up three times since the beginning of the year with the increase of VND40-45,000/12 kg tank in total. This represents a 20% increase in comparison with the end of 2008.
Transport fees not seen any decreases
The policy on tax exemption and tax payment extension has been applauded by economists and transport firms, who asserted that this would help reduce transport costs, thus helping stimulate production.
However, in fact, the policy has not brought any reduction in transport costs yet. Explaining this, Ta Long Hy, Deputy Director of Vinasun, a taxi firm, said that previously the VAT tax rate on taxi transport service was 5%. With the VAT law taking effect as of January 1, 2009, the tax rate was raised to 10%. However, with the latest decision on lowering VAT tax by 50%, the tax rate has been slashed to 5%. This means that the VAT tax remains at 5%.
Meanwhile, Hy said that other expenses have been staying at high levels. For example, the fee for safety and environmental verification has been raised from VND140,000/vehicle to VND260,000.
Nguyen Ngoc Lu, Deputy Chairman of the Cargo Transport Association, said that though the VAT has been slashed by 50%, the prices of materials for the transport industry have been skyrocketing, especially tyres.
VietNamNet, Lao dong
|
