Market experts have forecast the price of automobiles in Vietnam will not be lower in 2007, although the import tax is cut from 90 per cent to 80 per cent, against the forecast of 5 per cent price fall by the Ministry of Finance.
The fall or rise in car prices depends on importers as well as manufacturers in the country, VnExpress online newspaper cited a car trader as saying.
Pham Vu Duc, director of Hanoi-based car importer Duc Hoa Co. Ltd, said, “With the current policy, the car prices cannot be reduced soon.”
“We cannot reduce the price when our original price has been raised by customs authorities,” he said.
“For example, we import a sedan at a price of US$10,000 but after looking up several auto price websites the customs authorities tag the price of US$14,000 on our sedan. And, we have to pay tax for the new price rate,” he added.
“How can we reduce the price when our price is raised?” Duc asked.
Duc Hoa has recently quit importing automobiles and shifted its business to importing Thai bicycles.
Carmakers in Vietnam said import tax reduction will not have much influence on prices of vehicles sold in the country.
Deputy Minister of Industry Do Huu Hao said the 10 per cent tax cut is not strong enough to pull down the car price.
The price of imported vehicles depends on import taxes but the price of domestically assembled vehicles is influenced by competition pressure, he explained.
A price cut is possible only if imported vehicles can put pressure on sales of carmakers in the country, Deputy Minister of Finance Truong Chi Trung said.
The import volume this year is much lower than last year although the government allowed the import of secondhand vehicles since May 2006.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), Vietnam imported 12,000 automobiles valued US$208 million in 2006, down 32.3 per cent in volume and 26.8 per cent in value against 2005.
VnExpress
Vietnamese
