Business
Deputy PM responds to Vinacomin's plea
  • | dtinews.vn | October 05, 2016 05:07 PM

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has directed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to work with other ministries to help Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Holding Corporation (Vinacomin) deal with its losses and other difficulties.

 

Deputy PM to rescue Vinacomin

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will work with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to adjust tax policies to maintain the production capacity of the sector. Solutions to restructuring Vinacomin will also be discussed to improve its competitiveness.

The ministries encourage customers, especially the coal-fired power plants, to use local coal. They will also build more favourable mechanisms for coal exports for the next five years.

Vinacomin deputy director Nguyen Van Bien said they had faced various difficulties because of floods and output in the last six months would decrease.

Bien said local coal were less popular than imported coal because of higher prices, as environmental taxes in Vietnam are 5-7% higher than in China, Indonesia and Australia. He suggested lowering environmental taxes to increase competition against imported products.

This is not the first time Vinacomin has complained about environmental tax. In April, the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the General Directorate of Energy said Vinacomin already asked them to reduce environmental taxes of pit coal to 5%, open pit coal to 7% and exempt taxes on the waste rock and soil during the mining process.

Vinacomin said demand, as well as global coal prices, had been on the decline, but taxes and fees were rising, including natural resources tax, environmental taxes and fees, mining rights fees. In addition, local products have to incur 10% value-added tax.

According to Vinacomin, the total taxes were equal to 35% of the cost of a tonne of coal. The corporation reported an estimated VND1.2trn (USD55m) of losses in the recent storms and floods in the northern coastal of Quang Ninh Province.

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