Customs contributes record to State budget

Luu Manh Tuong, Director of the Import-Export Tax Department under the General Department of Customs, said the tax collected in 2019 was VND34 trillion higher than in 2018.

Free trade agreements between Vietnam and its partners, including the Republic of Korea, ASEAN and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), had helped improve Vietnam’s business climate.

This result was also due to strong growth in trade that reached US$510 billion last year, Tuong said.

Statistics showed that US$105.16 billion of imports and exports were taxed, up 7.97 percent year-on-year. This figure included US$5.8 billion from exports, down 1.8 percent, and US$99.36 billion from imports, up 8.6 percent.

The largest impact on State tax collection was the Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant.

The plant imported more than 7 million tonnes of crude oil worth US$3.33 billion, up 58 percent in volume and 38 percent in value year on year. It paid VND7.9 trillion (US$341.6 million) in import taxes, a year-on-year surge of 41 percent.

Imports of complete built-up (CBU) cars also contributed US$2.91 billion in total, up 97.7 percent in value year on year.

The State collected total tax revenue of VND38.2 trillion (US$1.6 billion) from the imports, up by 102.4 percent over the same period of 2018.

However, reduced import tariffs under FTA commitments had hit revenue collection.

The General Department of Customs forecasts this would continue to be a problem this year because more FTAs were coming into effect.