There is no shortage of sand… but the price keeps rising
The current price of sand in Quang Ngai is high, the price at the mine is about 300,000 VND/m3. When the sand reaches consumers, it will increase, depending on the transportation distance. Particularly in Ly Son island district, the price of sand is much higher than on the mainland due to high transportation costs, at times increasing to 700,000 VND/m3 of sand.
At this price, many individuals and organizations that need to buy construction sand are "disappointed" because their projects are over budget.
Despite being the “sand capital”, sand prices in Quang Ngai are always higher than in neighboring provinces. Sand prices at mines in Quang Ngai are twice as high as licensed sand prices in Binh Dinh province; 10% higher than mines in Quang Nam. Sand prices in the Western provinces, at the peak of the price fever in August 2023, were only VND380,000/m3 when transported to construction sites.
However, at the end of 2023, the People's Committee of Quang Ngai province issued the 2024 Natural Resources Tax Price List (effective from January 1, 2024) to 230,000 VND/m³, an increase of 80,000 VND/m³ compared to before, causing businesses - despite struggling to win the sand mine auction - to reluctantly ask to return the mine.
The reason given by the businesses returning the mines was that at the time of the auction, the unit price for calculating resource tax on construction sand in the area was 150,000 VND/m³, so it was difficult to make a profit. When the price for calculating resource tax increased to 230,000 VND/m³, the mine owners only suffered losses, so they all returned the sand mines.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Luu Tan Truong - Director of Quang Ngai Mineral Joint Stock Company expressed: "The price for calculating resource tax on construction sand is very high, so sand mining units must sell at a high price on the market, not speculate or arbitrarily increase the price. We think that the province should consider reducing the resource price for construction sand from the current VND 230,000/m³ to VND 150,000/m³ as in 2023, so that businesses can balance and reduce sand prices accordingly."
Proposal for sand price reduction
Realizing the shortcomings in the price for calculating resource tax, on September 24, 2024, Mr. Nguyen Huu Hong - Deputy Director of the Department of Construction of Quang Ngai province - sent an official dispatch to the Department of Finance regarding the implementation of the decision of the People's Committee of Quang Ngai province on the price list for calculating resource tax in 2024 in the area.
To stabilize and reduce sand prices according to the direction of the People's Committee of Quang Ngai province, in order to stimulate construction demand, the Department of Construction of Quang Ngai province proposed the Department of Finance to advise the People's Committee of Quang Ngai province to reduce the price for calculating natural resource tax on yellow sand used in construction from 230,000 VND/m³ to 150,000 VND/m³; this is the threshold within the average allowable range and similar to provinces in the Central region. Other natural resource tax rates are proposed to remain stable as in 2024.
This proposal of the Department of Construction is highly supported by people and businesses, because the construction sand market in the province is always high, greatly affecting public investment projects and people with construction needs.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Tran Van Man - Director of the Department of Construction - frankly said: "In fact, collecting a little more resource tax will increase the province's revenue. However, such a collection price combined with the price calculation structure, plus the bidding coefficients, causes the sand price to increase very high, beyond expectations. At first, I thought that this resource tax collection price would only push the sand price up by a few tens of thousands of VND per 1m³. However, due to the different calculation method and the addition of the bidding coefficient, the sand price is too high, not feasible."
