Luxury sport car Bugatti Veyron travels in HCM City after coming to the country as a Vietkieu asset in 2012.— Phto 24h.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) ─ Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang signed a new circular to tighten regulations on vehicle registration, with stricter rules for the transfer of Vietnamese overseas vehicles.

According to Circular No. 15, effective June 1, any overseas Vietnamese' (Viet kieu's) vehicle returning to the Viet Nam port from April 1, 2014, can only be transferred to another owner if it is registered with fully paid tax and the fee imposed on the Viet kieu under the current regulations.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) regulated that Viet kieu can have their cars imported as their assets without paying import duty but with only special consumption and value-added taxes and a vehicle registration fee.

This way, the MoF allowed each Viet kieu to have one car and one motorcycle in Viet Nam.

However, local authorities discovered that trade fraud of expensive cars have been committed by borrowing Viet kieu names and posing act as owners of luxury vehicles from abroad to skirt legal loopholes, reported the local media.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs also saw a sudden, sharp increase in the number of luxury cars imported to Viet Nam as Viet kieu assets. It calculated 1,200 cars registered as Viet kieu assets returning to Viet Nam in 2012, while the number was less than 200 from 2009 to 2011.

Dien dan doanh nghiep newspaper said that the sudden increase came after Viet Nam only allowed authorised car distributors to import new cars for sale in the country in 2011.

The newspaper also said by the end of this February, there were more than 100 luxury cars registered as Viet kieu assets seized at the locals ports.