Environmental protection taxes on petroleum products will be increased from January 1, 2019, according to a resolution issued by the National Assembly Standing Committee.
Under the resolution, the tax on gasoline will be increased by VND1,000 (4 US cents) to VND4,000 per litre.
Kerosene will be subject to an environmental tax of VND1,000 per litre, VND700 higher than the current level. In comparison with the Government’s proposal in May, the tax on kerosene has been reduced by half.
In addition, taxes on lubricants and mazut will also be raised to VND2,000 per litre from the current level of VND900.
The resolution aims to reduce the impact of rising prices of petroleum products on the consumer price index (CPI) this year, ensuring the Government’s inflation control of under 4 per cent.
During the discussion before passing the resolution, which was drafted by the Government, Chairman of the National Assembly Committee for External Affairs Nguyen Van Giau said that raising taxes on essential commodities such as gasoline and oil would affect the prices of all products.
He said the Government should make a full assessment of its results.
According to Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien, if this tax was adjusted, the State budget would have more than VND15.7 trillion ($671.66 million) to deal with environmental pollution issues. He proposed that revenues collected from environmental taxes on petroleum products should be spent on environmental protection.
Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said people would agree it was fair that the taxes should be spent on environmental protection.
Nguyen Duc Hai, chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee in charge of examining the Government report, said that it had measured the impact of increasing the environmental tax on gasoline and oil to inflation.
The committee’s report said that the prices of petroleum would only make CPI increase by 0.07-0.09 per cent in 2019 because it was one of 11 commodities used to calculate CPI.
The retail price of gasoline in Viet Nam on September 10 was low compared to other countries sharing the border, in ASEAN and Asia. It was VND5,318 a litre lower than Laos, VND1,773 lower than Cambodia and VND1,499 lower than China. — VNS