On the morning of June 14, the National Assembly voted to pass the Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended).
The results of the electronic vote showed that 448/454 National Assembly deputies participated in the vote in favor, accounting for 94.98% of the total number of National Assembly deputies.
Before voting, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented a report explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended).
Regarding taxable subjects (Article 2), there are opinions suggesting regulating air conditioners above 24,000 BTU to 90,000 BTU to be subject to special consumption tax. There are opinions suggesting not collecting tax on natural fruit juice products and specialized nutritional drinks. There are opinions suggesting tax collection for other sugar products; adding plastic bags, plastic products, hard-to-decompose plastic packaging, online betting business, online games, beauty services to the taxable list. Some opinions suggest not including gasoline in the taxable list.
In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed with the proposal of the drafting agency to regulate air conditioners with a capacity of over 24,000 BTU to 90,000 BTU subject to tax (no tax is collected for air conditioners with a capacity of 24,000 BTU or less and air conditioners with a capacity of over 90,000 BTU).
Regarding the scope of sugary soft drinks subject to tax and additional taxable subjects, according to the provisions of the draft Law, sugary soft drinks subject to tax are products within the scope of the concept of soft drinks according to Vietnamese Standards with sugar content over 5g/100ml, excluding drinks such as milk and dairy products; liquid foods for nutritional purposes; natural mineral water and bottled water; vegetable, whole fruit and nectar (seed) vegetables, fruits and cocoa products.
Accordingly, products such as natural fruit juice, coconut water, dairy products, liquid foods for nutritional purposes... are not subject to special consumption tax.
The addition of sugar products as well as other goods and services subject to tax as proposed by some National Assembly deputies still has many different views; some products have also been raised by the drafting agency during the process of drafting the Law, however, up to now, there has not been enough impact assessment to serve as a basis and clearly demonstrate the superiority, feasibility and suitability of taxing these goods and services in the current context.
Mr. Mai said that these contents will continue to be carefully studied and evaluated, considering the goals of recovering production and business of enterprises and will report to the National Assembly at the appropriate time.
Similarly, regarding the collection of special consumption tax on gasoline products, in the long term, it is necessary to study a plan to synchronously amend both special consumption tax and environmental protection tax to be able to tax this item appropriately, in accordance with international practices.
"In the context of the need to synchronously deploy solutions to effectively implement the commitment of the Vietnamese Government at the COP26 Conference, along with the regulation on environmental protection tax collection, collecting special consumption tax on gasoline at the current stage is still necessary" - Mr. Mai said.
Regarding non-taxable subjects, there are opinions suggesting adding aircraft, helicopters, and surface ships used for rescue and relief purposes to non-taxable subjects; suggesting replacing the phrase "peticulture" with the phrase "in agricultural production".
Incorporating the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed with the proposal of the drafting agency to add aircraft, helicopters, and moonboats for emergency, rescue, and agricultural production purposes that are not subject to tax.
In addition to the above contents, National Assembly deputies discussed and gave opinions on a number of contents related to regulations on tax rates, roadmaps for increasing tax rates, refunds, tax deductions, tax reductions, and the effectiveness of the Law... The National Assembly Standing Committee has directed the inspection agency to coordinate with the Drafting Agency and relevant agencies to study and review carefully to absorb and explain the opinions of National Assembly deputies and revise and complete the draft Law.
