Needles and sandals are also difficult to sell because Chinese goods flood through online markets

After Tuoi Tre Online post Orders transferred to Shopee, Lazada, TikTok… billions of USD/month, should VAT be exempted?, many small businesses and experts have shared the opinion that the State needs to consider imposing VAT on imported goods. The export value is small, because this is a segment that is being imported quite a lot and tends to increase strongly.

From needles… to hairpins, it’s hard to sell

Although selling fashion accessories at a fairly cheap value for each product, Ms. Dao Thi Thu Thanh, a small trader in the An Dong market area (District 5, Ho Chi Minh City), said that the past few months have been quite sluggish and difficult, so Many sellers were forced to leave the market that they had been working in for decades.

According to Ms. Thanh, the main reason for the sharp decline in purchasing power is that traditional markets face great competition with online goods, especially accessories and fashion products imported from China.

“From needles, hairpins… to clothes and shoes, these are low-value items but we still find it difficult to sell, because this group of products is being imported and sold on e-commerce sites ( e-commerce), online market with a very large quantity and quite cheap prices”, Ms. Thanh commented.

Likewise, exchange with Tuoi Tre OnlineMs. Doan Thi Thu Ha, representative of the management board of Thu Duc market (HCMC), confirmed that although the selling prices at the market are very competitive, there are even times when small businesses offer deep promotions, selling at the same price of 10,000 VND/month. sandals, but the number of customers is still low, many stalls have closed.

According to Ms. Ha, the above products at the market are difficult to sell mainly because they are facing great competition from online markets, especially imported goods from China flooding every corner with all types and quite cheap prices.

Exchange with Tuoi Tre Online On April 25, the manager of an e-commerce platform said that famous traditional markets and wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City such as Tan Binh, An Dong… many years ago could be considered “one hand covering the sky” when small businesses almost monopolizes the import of fashion goods from everywhere, especially Chinese goods, then wholesales and distributes everywhere.

However, in recent years, online channels have developed too quickly, goods sold through e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, TikTok… are flooding, which is when the markets gradually lose market share.

According to this person, with the current growth rate of online channels, it is inevitable that small businesses will increasingly encounter difficulties, and will even “lose their jobs” sooner than forecast. Therefore, small businesses, small shops, and even commodity production need to change their business methods to suit the inevitable trends of the market.

Taxing imported goods to save the domestic industry?

According to the survey, currently small value items, from a few thousand to 100,000 – 200,000 VND/product, are overwhelmingly on online sales channels, sometimes even up to 70 – 80% on e-commerce platforms. .

“The amount of products is large, the product value is small, and the delivery process is too convenient, so imported goods are easily sold on online channels, thereby easily demolishing traditional sales channels, domestically produced goods. Therefore, , it is necessary to consider imposing value-added tax (VAT) on small-value imported goods to save the domestic manufacturing industry” – Mr. Ngo Van Trong, online sales channel manager in Ho Chi Minh City , identify.

Meanwhile, many experts said that recently there has been a situation of “shredding” imported goods to reduce their value in order to enjoy the VAT exemption policy, further pushing up the amount of imported small-value goods to increase abnormally. .

Exchange with Tuoi Tre Online On April 25, Mr. Tran Dinh Dung, director of Dasa Thao Moc Company (HCMC), said that not only consumer goods, even imported agricultural products are now sold through online channels quite a lot, causing The domestic manufacturing industry is almost uncompetitive.

Specifically, garlic products imported from China are divided into small parts and sold by sellers on the online market with a common price of 30,000 – 70,000 VND/kg depending on the type, half the price of domestic products of the same type, even some types of garlic. only 1/3.

“I don’t know how to tax and monitor the quality of imported goods today, but we need to take measures more or less soon to protect domestic production, not let imported goods flood in so easily. If Without effective measures, many farmers and manufacturing businesses will find it difficult to survive,” Mr. Dung said.

However, some people believe that imposing VAT on this segment will increase the price of imported goods, thereby increasing selling prices, causing more or less difficulties for consumers.

Therefore, calculating VAT on small-value imported goods needs to consider many aspects. Taxes can be levied on e-commerce platforms or basic product groups and industries that are produced a lot domestically to increase cash revenue. policies, supporting consumers, and protecting domestic production.