HÀ NỘI — Authorities in the central province of Quảng Nam have asked the Government to reduce the import tax on auto parts and components for locally-assembled vehicles at the earliest.

Speaking at an online conference of the Government and representatives of localities on Monday, chairman of Quảng Nam People’s Committee Đinh Văn Thu said the provincial budget had declined in the first half of this year due to a decrease in the auto parts and components consumption of local auto businesses and automakers.

Quảng Nam is home to the Chu Lai-Trường Hải Auto Manufacture and Assembly Complex, which opened on nearly 600ha in 2003 with 25 auto companies and factories inside.

 “The provincial budget is calculated to decrease by VNĐ1.6 trillion due to a drop in tax collection from automakers this year. Meanwhile, it’s estimated that local automakers’ and assemblers’ consumption will reduce by 11 per cent in the second half of this year,” Thu said.

Based on this fact, provincial authorities expected the Government to recalculate the import tax on parts and components for local automakers. The new tax should be applied before January 1, 2018, when the import tax of autos become zero per cent in the ASEAN to create favourable conditions for businesses to develop operations and compete with other regional rivals.

“The new import tax on auto parts and components should be applicable from October this year,” Thu said.

The decline has occurred not only in Quảng Nam Province but also in other provinces, including Hải Dương and Vĩnh Phúc, where authorities said the local budget had significantly reduced in the first half of this year due to a drop in the automakers’ tax payments to the provincial budget.

Sharing the opinion with representatives of localities, Minister of Finance Đinh Tiến Dũng said there was a shift in the production structure of domestic automakers and assemblers, who were preparing to take advantage of the opportunities and face challenges due to tax cut from early next year. They had now changed their business policies to deal with the import of vehicles from Thailand and Indonesia to the Vietnamese market.

Instead of manufacturing and assembling, a number of auto businesses had moved to import, which led to a decrease in local budget, Dũng said.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said close watch was needed on the import of cars with nine seats or less from Thailand and Indonesia to adopt controlling measures in time to protect domestic auto manufacturing and reduce trade imbalance with the ASEAN market.

According to the General Statistics Office, Việt Nam imported 24,613 cars from Thailand and Indonesia in the first five months of this year, greatly exceeding the figure of 16,622 units imported from the remaining 10 auto export countries to Việt Nam, including South Korea, Malaysia and China.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng asked ministries and sectors to study policies to build the country’s automobile industry. “We must have our own automobile industry.” — VNS