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Vietnam sets higher taxable prices for imported cars
The General Customs Department has set higher minimum taxable prices for more than 600 imported car models, following allegations that local importers have used under-invoicing to evade taxes.
Taxable prices for all imported cars, both new and used, will be between 3 and 20 percent higher, which can translate to an increase of thousands of US dollars, local newswire VnExpress reported Friday.
An Acura MDX imported from Canada, for instance, was priced at US$33,000 at Vietnamese ports, but now customs will tax the vehicles on a price of no less than $37,000, even if the actual price is lower, the newswire said.
Fair but expensive
A car importer in Ho Chi Minh City told VnExpress that the move would make competition more fair among businesses, but he said it would also drive retail prices up.
“In the end, it is still consumers who will be hurt,” he said, warning that incorrect pricing could violate regulations set by the World Trade Organization.
The decision to raise minimum prices for imported cars came after Vietnam’s carmakers said under-invoicing and other unfair competitive practices by auto importers were hurting them as well as the state exchequer.
The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association has informed the Finance Ministry that some importers intentionally make invoice prices much lower than actual selling prices to reduce their tax obligations.
However, many car importers said they declared car prices based on their contracts with foreign sellers and thus it is not so easy to evade tax by under-invoicing as claimed by the automobile association.
They said the new price list was made in favor of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
But VnExpress cited an official at the General Customs Department as saying that the decision was not a response to what the car association has said. It was necessary to update the price list regularly, he said.
thanhnien
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