News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 21 Aug 2008

Vietnam plans to hike duties on crude, coal exports

Vietnam's Finance Ministry has proposed to more than double the export tariff ceilings on crude oil and coal to save more for domestic consumption.

Under the proposal, the maximum tariffs imposed on crude oil and coal exports would rise to 50 percent and 45 percent respectively from 20 percent now.

"The increases in these exportable items to the maximum levels are aimed at limiting 'the bleeding' of natural resources," the Ministry said in a report seen on Thursday.

 The ceiling for export tax on rice would be 40 percent instead of 30 percent now, it said but did not give any timeframe for the new tariffs.

In April Hanoi raised the export duty on coal to 15 percent from 10 percent and doubled that on crude oil to 8 percent as part of its efforts to curb exports and save the fuel for power plants and future oil refineries.

The Southeast Asian country is struggling to meet soaring energy demand at home and plans to slash coal export this year, mainly to China, by more than 32 percent to about 22 million tonnes.

It also plans to halve crude exports, now averaging around 300,000 bpd, by the end of next year, to feed its first refinery, the 140,000-bpd Dung Quat plant scheduled to open in 2009.

The government has said it wanted to have at least three major oil refineries by 2015 to stop importing oil products.

This week the ministry also proposed to raise taxes on production of natural gas and mining of manganese, steel, lead, zinc, copper and tin to between 10 percent and 30 percent.