This information was stated by Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai in the report on the review of the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on reducing value-added tax (VAT) on the morning of May 13.
According to Mr. Phan Van Mai, the majority of opinions in the Economic and Financial Committee (KTTC) agreed with the necessity of issuing a Resolution to continue applying the VAT reduction policy for the last 6 months of 2025 and the whole year of 2026 as proposed by the Government to support businesses to promote production and business, associated with maintaining macroeconomic stability.
Continuing to issue this policy can be considered a measure towards domestic consumption to promote growth, contributing to achieving the set growth target of 8%.
Some opinions say that the continuous extension and prolongation of the implementation of the tax reduction policy creates a bad precedent, making the tax policy unstable and inconsistent.
The narrowing of fiscal space and policy space will reduce the ability to respond to more serious economic crises in the future.
With the expected impact of reducing state budget revenue by about 39.54 trillion VND from implementing the VAT reduction policy but not yet included in the 2025 state budget estimate, along with newly arising state budget expenditures and other revenue reduction policies.
This may affect the assurance of the state budget revenue and expenditure estimate for 2025 as well as the development of the estimate for 2026.
The majority of opinions in the KTTC Committee agreed with the Government's proposal and said that expanding the scope of subjects eligible for VAT reduction is necessary to contribute to supporting businesses, stabilizing the macro environment to promote economic growth in the context of many current difficulties in the economy.
However, it is recommended that the Government have effective solutions to ensure overcoming difficulties and obstacles in implementing policies due to the continued presence of goods and sectors that are excluded, not subject to tax reduction, ensuring easy-to-implement targets and facilitating taxpayers.
It is necessary to assess more carefully the impact on state budget revenue, ensure the implementation of tax reduction policies associated with the goal of stabilizing medium-term finances and ensuring public debt safety, and ensure consistency with other tax policies such as environmental protection tax, special consumption tax, etc.
There are opinions suggesting reviewing to consider some items affected by the trade war and US counterpart tax policies. Some opinions say that only 3 groups of goods and services are proposed not to reduce taxes.
Therefore, it is recommended that the Ministry of Finance review, in case the difference in 2% VAT collection for these groups of goods and services is not too large, it can consider reducing taxes for all goods and services, ensuring fairness.
