Vietnam's Finance Ministry has decided to slash the import tax on new automobiles used for transporting people to 80 percent on Jan. 11 from current 90 percent, local media reported Friday.

The new tariff, in accordance with commitments Vietnam has made for entry to the World Trade Organization, will not affect prices of automobiles assembled and produced in Vietnam, but lower prices of imported vehicles by 5-10 percent, Youth newspaper reported.

The Ministry is considering the possibility of reducing tariffs on second-hand cars with small engine sizes by 5 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent, and increasing those with big engine sizes by 20 percent.

Vietnam currently houses 13 automobile joint ventures between foreign firms and local ones with a total registered capital of nearly 700 million U.S. dollars and combined annual capacity of 173,000 units. Besides, the country has dozens of local enterprises specializing in producing automobile parts and assembling simple vehicles.

Early this year, Vietnam with a population of more than 83 million, had some 700,000 private-owned cars compared with 17 million motorbikes, according to statistics from the Transport Ministry.

Source: Xinhua