Vietnam Import duty May Go up on Used Luxury Cars

The Finance Ministry has said the government is considering raising taxes on used luxury cars imported into the country in May.

News website VnExpress cited the ministry as saying that the import tariffs on used cars are currently calculated based on their engine capacity, which means super-expensive Maybach and Rolls-Royce models are subject to the same tax rates as other cheaper cars.

The ministry has therefore proposed that either an across-the-board tax increase be imposed on all cars, or import duties be set based on car value.

VnExpress said customs officials support the second option as they think it's fair. "We can't tax a Maybach worth more than US$500,000 as much as a $50,000 BMW," an unidentified source said.

Vietnam began importing used cars in May 2006. Within two years the number of imported cars had reached 10,000, half of which were luxury cars. Official data showed that most of the used cars came from South Korea, Germany, Japan and the US.

In order to control the country's persistent trade deficit, the Ministry of Finance said it also plans to raise import taxes on other products by 5-10 percentage points, including ink jet printing machinery, tobacco and magnetic tapes used in filmmaking.