Do not let difficulties arise in implementing value added tax reduction

Continue to reduce 2% value added tax

Presenting the Government's Proposal, Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan said that the Government proposed to reduce the value added tax rate by 2% for groups of goods and services currently subject to a tax rate of 10% (to 8%), except for the following groups of goods and services: Telecommunications, financial activities, banking, securities, insurance, real estate business, metal products, mining products (except coal), goods and services subject to special consumption tax (except gasoline). The application period is from July 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai moderated the content. Photo: Ho Long

The Government is assigned to guide the reduction of value-added tax rates and organize the implementation of this policy to ensure publicity, transparency and efficiency.

With the above tax reduction, it is expected that the state budget revenue will decrease by about 121.74 trillion VND in the last 6 months of 2025 and the whole year of 2026 (of which the last 6 months of 2025 will decrease by about 39.54 trillion VND, and in 2026, it will decrease by about 82.2 trillion VND).

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai speaks at the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

Reviewing the Government's Proposal, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that the majority of opinions in the Standing Committee of the Committee agreed with the necessity of issuing a Resolution at the Government's request to support businesses in promoting production and business, associated with maintaining macroeconomic stability.

In the context of the domestic economy facing many difficulties and challenges; the world economy has many unstable fluctuations, affecting the ability to ensure export targets..., continuing to issue this policy can be seen as a measure aimed at domestic consumption to promote growth, contributing to achieving the set growth target of 8%.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai reviews the Government's Proposal. Photo: Ho Long

However, some opinions say that continuing to propose the issuance of policies is not really appropriate and it is difficult to achieve the set goal of stimulating consumption because the policy's ability to stimulate demand has been saturated after a long period of implementation.

Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan presented the Government's Proposal. Photo: Ho Long

Some argue that the continuous extension and prolongation of policy implementation creates a bad precedent, making tax policy unstable and inconsistent, especially in the context of the Law on Value Added Tax that has been promulgated by the National Assembly and will take effect from July 1, 2025. In addition, the narrowing of fiscal and policy space will reduce the ability to respond to more serious economic crises in the future...

Evaluate revenue and expenditure to ensure budget balance

Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to submit to the National Assembly a proposal to reduce value-added tax for the last 6 months of 2025 and the whole year of 2026 to stimulate consumption and respond to the complex fluctuations of the current world economic and trade. At the same time, it will promote production and business development, create jobs, contribute to achieving the growth target of 8% or more in 2025 and implement other growth targets next year, bringing the country into a new growth phase.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that at the previous meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the National Assembly Chairman requested that the Economic and Financial Committee coordinate with Government agencies to clarify the savings from the restructuring and streamlining of the apparatus. Furthermore, in addition to the tax reduction policy, there will be a number of other policies.

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc speaks at the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

Therefore, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee suggested that agencies coordinate to evaluate revenue and expenditure to ensure budget balance, because when added together, the expenditure is not small compared to the total budget revenue.

Clarifying the issue of concern to the National Assembly Standing Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that he had assigned the Ministry of Finance to synthesize and report to the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly Chairman.

The Deputy Prime Minister also stated that budget expenditures are expected to increase in 2025. Because when we streamline the apparatus, just paying officials who quit their jobs or retire early will cost about 170 trillion VND, according to incomplete statistics. "In addition, we need to spend about 30 trillion VND to reduce tuition fees. In the near future, we will implement a number of policies on health insurance and other policies, so expenditures may increase," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister also emphasized that Vietnam's value-added tax is lower than other countries, only 10%, while it has been reduced to 8% in the past 4 years. This is a priority to ensure businesses recover after the Covid-19 pandemic as well as to cope with the imposition of some new taxes in the world.

Concluding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai noted that the Government needs to pay attention to implementing policies to ensure the set goals, not to let difficulties and obstacles occur; take responsibility in the process of implementing the collection task, ensuring revenue sources for the estimated expenditure tasks in 2025 and urgent requirements arising, as well as the state budget estimate for 2026... At the same time, he suggested that the Government complete the dossier to increase persuasiveness to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and decision at the upcoming Ninth Session.

Le Binh

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/khong-de-xay-ra-kho-khan-trong-trien-khai-giam-thue-gia-tri-gia-tang-post411152.html