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Vietnam to Increase Petroleum Import Tax

Posted on: Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Vietnam to increase petroleum import tax

HANOI, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has just decided to raise import tariff imposed on petroleum products to 5 percent from zero percent, according to the Finance Ministry Tuesday.

The new tariff, to be applied from Wednesday, is partly because crude oil prices in the world has now declined to 58 US dollars per barrel from 65 dollars last month, head of the ministry's Tax Policy Department Quach Duc Phap said.

In addition, the tax hike can help prevent smuggling of petroleum products abroad, he said, noting that the petroleum prices in Vietnam are lower than those in neighboring countries.

Vietnam imported over 9.6 million tons of petroleum products worth nearly 4.2 billion US dollars in the first 10 months of this year, posting respective surges of 4.7 percent and 43.1 percent over the same period last year, according to the country' s General Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, it exported roughly 15 million tons of crude oil worth over 6.2 billion dollars, down 7.2 percent in volume but up 33.5 percent in value.

To reduce reliance on petroleum imports, Vietnam is speeding up the construction of its first oil refinery with annual refining capacity of 6.5 million tons in central Quang Ngai province. The refinery will go into operation in late 2008 or early 2009.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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