Vietnam Raises Tax to Preserve Resources: Government

Vietnam will raise tax of a number of minerals from early 2016 to preserve the resources and increase the state budget revenues, the Ministry of Finance has said. The government will raise tax on three groups of natural resources as required in Resolution 24-NQ/TW by the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee. The first group includes metallic minerals namely platinum, nickel, cobalt, gold, copper, silver, titanium, wolfram, and zinc. The Ministry of Finance plans to increase by 2% each for iron ore, titanium, wolfram, copper, and gold to between 14% and 20%, by 3% to 18% for rare earth and by 5% to 15% each for lead and zinc. The second group covers non-metallic minerals including white marble to 15% from 9%, sand to 15% to 11%, granite to 15% from 10%, clay to make brick to 15% from 10%, anthracite, lignite, and metallurgical coal to 12% from 9%. The third group comprises natural water with a hike varying between 2% and 5%. Raising tax on water is expected to raise the state budget collection by VND888 billion ($40 million) per year. The tax hike is aimed at curbing natural resource exploitation, which causes environmental pollution. The extractive industry’s contribution to GDP has risen from 4.6% in 1995 to 11% in 2009. (Thoi Bao Tai Chinh – Finance Times Oct 7 p12)