On November 22, the National Assembly discussed in groups the draft Law on Corporate Income Tax (amended) and the draft Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended).
The draft Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended) amends and supplements the description of automobiles, clearly stipulating tax rates for passenger pick-up cars belonging to the group of passenger cars and four-wheeled passenger vehicles with engines of 9 seats or less.
Accordingly, apply appropriate tax rates (equal to 60% of the tax rate applied to passenger vehicles) to double-cabin cargo pickup trucks and VAN trucks with two or more rows of seats.
Commenting on this content, stating the reason for keeping the current tax rate for pick-up trucks, delegate Nguyen Thanh Phuong (Can Tho Delegation) said that currently, rural traffic infrastructure is improving, so people using this vehicle to transport people and labor tools for work has become more popular.
“In the future, this will be a means of transport. A very rich man, driving a pickup truck, wearing nice clothes, getting out of a pickup truck to go to work is not common. So taking advantage of low tax rates and cheap transportation is not big,” said the delegate.
The delegate gave an example, during his 2 years in Thailand, he saw that in rural areas, families all had this means of transport to get to work; even on farms, these means of transport were very popular. Therefore, the delegate suggested that there should be an appropriate tax rate for this type of vehicle.
“If there is no car, then motorbikes are used to transport bulky labor equipment, which sometimes causes inconvenience in traffic. This is a means of demonstrating the development and wealth of rural people when they have such a means of transportation to work.
Therefore, I propose considering a suitable tax plan for pick-up trucks so that people can access them. If the rich buy luxury cars, then just tax them; if the rich increase the tax a bit, then it is not a big deal, but people who need a means of transportation to work are very important,” said the delegate.
Delegate Phan Duc Hieu (Thai Binh Delegation) also proposed keeping the current special consumption tax on pickup trucks.
The delegate said that in reality, very few car enthusiasts use pickup trucks. Meanwhile, this vehicle is mainly used for production labor, especially in rural areas.
Delegates asked why vehicles used extensively in production and business have to pay special consumption tax, which is a tax to regulate consumption demand?
Delegate of Thai Binh delegation also pointed out that pickup trucks suffer more losses than regular cars and have a limited lifespan, so such a tax increase will immediately affect buyers, even leading to cases of buying other cars and removing the seats to use as cargo vehicles.
Giving further comments on the method of taxing pickup trucks at 60% compared to regular cars, delegates said that such a tax should not be imposed because pickup trucks are cargo vehicles with very large cylinder capacity, and cannot be compared to regular cars.
