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Finance Minister: Prices controlled to secure one-digit inflation rate
In the remaining months of 2012, price management will be tightened to guarantee the single-digit inflation rate while tax reductions and breaks are adopted as a way to ease businesses’ difficulties, said the chief of the Ministry of Finance.
Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue made the statement in the weekly live show “People ask, ministers answer” jointly hosted by VGP and Viet Nam Television on October 14.
Explaining the CPI increase in September at 2.2%, approximate to the total figure in the first eight months of 2012 (2.86%), the Minister listed four main commodities accounting for 2.1% of the CPI including medicine and medical treatment and examination, education and training, transportation, and housing-building materials.
The Minister asserted that forecast work needs to be improved with the aim of keeping the monthly CPI increase at a steady level.
He added that the coordination in price management between ministries and agencies as well as between the central and local authorities should be further harmonized.
Mr. Hue took the group of medical services as an example. A joint circular on raising medical services was issued in February 2012 but provincial-level People’s Councils have the right to decide the price and the roadmap of price adjustments. According to Minister Hue, if the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and local governments had jointly taken part in adjusting the process, the price of medical services would not have rocketed in September.
Tax reductions and breaks continued
The Finance Minister emphad that his Ministry and other relevant agencies will continue to propose proper financial and tax solutions to facilitate enterprises’ production and business activities.
As of the end of September, the Ministry of Finance granted tax reductions, exemptions and breaks for hundreds of thousands of businesses, valuing nearly VND20,000 billion, said Minister Hue.
The General Department of Taxation and the Viet Nam Customs have held several conferences to help businesses overcome difficulties and obstacles, reduce expenditures on tax, and push up tax administrative reform.
Mr. Hue revealed that his Ministry is considering to reduce the tax mobilization in order to kick up consumption and production investment.
vietnamnet
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