Viet Nam has some 12,000 gold trading companies, most of which work on a small-scale and are eligible to trade only gold jewellery, not gold bullion.— Photo vgia

HCM CITY (Biz Hub)— Export taxes on gold jewellery and fine works are to be eliminated, while the tax on material gold will be set at 2 per cent beginning January 1 next year, reports www.thesaigontimes.vn.

Current export taxes on both material gold of less than 99.99 per cent purity and jewellery gold of over 80 per cent purity is 10 per cent, which was set in 2011. These taxes, however, were said to have damaged the industry.

Additionally, the new 2 per cent tax for material gold is only to be levied when the State Bank of Viet Nam allows companies to import or export material gold, said Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang, of the Tax Policy Department, the Ministry of Finance, quoted by www.thesaigontimes.vn

Viet Nam has only two companies that export gold jewellery, PNJ and SJC.

PNJ is a jewellery exporter that has engaged in exports for many years. However, Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of PNJ said, as quoted by www.thesaigontimes.vn, that jewellery export sales only contributed some 6 per cent to her company's total revenues, as export profits remained low.

According to data, Viet Nam has some 12,000 gold trading companies, most of which work on a small-scale and are eligible to trade only gold jewellery, not gold bullion.

The Viet Nam Gold Trading Association noted that the export tax for gold jewellery was zero in Thailand, as their gold jewellery industry consistently registers a high export turnover of some $3 billion annually. — VNS