Car trading firms in Vietnam are unwilling to import more used cars into the country as the sales go slowly recently, local media said.
Pham Huu Tam, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Tradaco Co., said his company hardly sold any cars since early September.
Only experienced firms can continue importing secondhand cars, Pham Van Duc, director of Duc Hoa Co., said.
The price and tax of a secondhand car can be changed by customs authorities, he added. “If they find the price is lower than their internet-based sources, they will raise the price, and then, the tax is also added,” he explained.
Small companies cannot bear new costs resulted from delayed customs clearance, said Duc, whose company has turned to trading bicycles.
Further, the taste of customers has, to a certain extent, changed already. “Previously, they like luxury cars but now they are fond of limited or specially designed models such as Smart Roadster and Smart Fortwo.
After four months, only 160 used cars have passed Vietnamese ports.
“The market prospect is still dull in the coming months,” Tradaco’s Tam said.
According to several traders, the high tax rates on used cars are reasons for the hard sales. An imported secondhand car is now levied absolute tax, 50 per cent special consumption tax and 105 VAT. The absolute tax is a fixed amount of tax for every car in a line regardless of price, model or origin. The absolute tax ranges between $3,000 and $25,000, depending on engine sizes.
However, according to the Ministry of Finance, no change in tax policies is discussed at the moment.
The market size is dependent on consumers, not tax policies which have been stabilized, a ministry official said.
Vnexpress
Vietnamese
