Continue to exempt small-value imported goods from VAT, widening the door for foreign goods to ‘crush’ domestic goods?

Because many opinions believe that the strong development of e-commerce platforms is facilitating foreign goods, especially small-value imported goods, flooding into Vietnam, creating great pressure on Vietnamese goods. and traditional retail channels.

Collect online sales tax to ensure fairness

Exchange with Tuoi Tre OnlineAssociate Professor, Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh – financial expert – said that to ensure equality in business, taxation on imported goods of small value, especially through e-commerce channels, needs to be considered. come to perform.

Because in the past, when developing tax laws, authorities also considered the collection of value-added tax and other taxes. However, because revenue management costs a lot of money, while the revenue results are “not interesting” due to their small value, no tax has been applied to imported goods with a value of less than 1 million. copper.

However, Mr. Thinh said that with current practice, buying and selling through e-commerce sites, e-commerce floors and the digital economy is increasingly developing. Therefore, statistics and calculations to collect taxes on imported orders under 1 million VND will certainly no longer be “too complicated” when many technology platforms are applied.

Also according to Mr. Thinh, in the current context, the development of the digital economy is creating favorable conditions for business activities through e-commerce platforms.

This is an area that needs to be exploited and promoted effectively, but the calculation of taxes and management of activities with trading floors and business people are not complete and keep up with reality.

“Therefore, to ensure fair and equal competition with traditional businesses, it is time to digitize management, monitoring, and tax collection activities with trading activities on e-commerce platforms.” , buying and selling online on social networks like Facebook or Zalo” – Mr. Thinh stated his opinion.

Speaking at a recent discussion session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on this issue, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that it is necessary to consider eliminating tax exemption regulations for imported goods with small value.

He cited data from the Post and Telecommunications Joint Stock Corporation, as of March 2023, there was an average of about 4-5 million orders/day shipped from China to Vietnam.

With the value of each order divided into 100,000 – 300,000 VND; Every day, an average of about 45 – 63 million USD, a month about 1.3 – 1.9 billion USD worth of goods are circulated through Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, TikTok…

Thus, with the explosion of cross-border e-commerce, the amount of cross-border transactions of small value goods has increased many times.

There are great pressures on traditional retail and domestic production

An industry leader said that the trend of online shopping, through e-commerce platforms and social networks, is increasingly growing. This is an inevitable trend in development, when technology, digital transformation and digital economic sectors are booming, creating great pressure on Vietnam’s traditional retail industry.

“The rapid change in retail types requires retail models to adapt, both digital and green. Accordingly, modern retail will account for the main proportion, businesses Join the e-commerce channel to sell products” – this person commented.

Meanwhile, delegate Vu Tien Loc – president of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC) – expressed concern about continuing tax exemption for imported goods of small value. Because this may have an increasingly large impact, putting pressure on domestic production, as the volume of transactions through e-commerce channels increases.

Therefore, he believes that maintaining the tax exemption policy while trade and business activities have changed according to new trends will cause foreign goods to flood into Vietnam through e-commerce channels. thereby “crushing” domestic products and creating greater pressure on domestic retail channels.