The Vietnamese Finance Ministry has proposed the government to slash taxes on automobiles imported from Southeast Asia, under the roadmap of the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT) for the ASEAN Free Trade Area, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Friday.

Accordingly, tariffs on completely-built unit (CBU) automobiles with 9 seats or more will fall to 20 percent in 2007, 10 percent in 2008 and 5 percent in 2009 from the current 90 percent, and those on CBU vehicles with fewer 9 seats will be lowered to 20 percent in 2008, 10 percent in 2009 and 5 percent in 2010 from current 90 percent.

Absolute tariffs on second-hand automobiles imported from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines, will also be slashed.

Vietnam spent 122 million U.S. dollars importing CBU automobiles and components for assembly in the first three months of this year, down 48.2 percent against the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Vietnam spent nearly 1.1 billion dollars importing the products in 2005, a year-on-year rise of 19.3 percent. Specifically, it imported 17,000 CBU automobiles worth 280 million U.S. dollars, down 24.3 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively, the office said.

Source: Xinhua