Stimulate consumption, create growth momentum

Increase income for people, reduce fees for businesses

Mr. Phan Duc Hieu, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee, gave an example of the first month of 2025, a month with two Tet holidays, when purchasing power normally increases sharply, but in reality it increases slowly. Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in January 2025 reached VND 573,300 billion, up 9.5% over the same period last year. In February, total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue decreased by 2.5% compared to January. People's difficulties still exist, reflected in tightening spending.

According to the report of the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance), in the first two months of 2025, the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market was 67,000, higher than the number of enterprises entering the market of 49,800. Of which, the number of enterprises completing dissolution procedures increased by 10.3% over the same period and was the highest level in the same period of the years 2021 - 2025.

Flexible capital mobilization mechanism is needed for the National Housing Fund.

According to Mr. Phan Duc Hieu, the current priority stimulus solutions need to increase income and savings for people to stimulate consumption. From a policy perspective, it is necessary to speed up the progress of amending the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Law in the direction of raising taxable income, increasing family deductions, adding deductions, designing appropriate tax rates, etc. so that people have more savings to serve their spending.

At the same time, the Government needs to continue to promote measures to support businesses in production and business; have financial support policies for businesses, in order to reduce production costs, reduce product prices, and contribute to stimulating consumption. Specifically, it is necessary to review tax policies, if not really necessary, it should not propose to increase taxes or increase revenues for businesses. In cases where it is still necessary to amend tax laws, it is necessary to set long-term goals, and the application deadline should be postponed for another 2-3 years.

“In particular, the Government needs to review and amend regulations that are increasing costs for businesses. For example, with the deposit regulation when importing scrap paper for production, each shipment of goods requires a deposit of 15-20% of the total value of the imported scrap shipment. This is not a small amount of money in the context of businesses lacking capital for production and business and without any violations,” Mr. Phan Duc Hieu proposed.

Tax reduction, interest rate support

“To achieve 8% GDP, domestic consumption needs to increase by about 12%, higher than the average of 8% in the past 5-10 years. Therefore, stimulating domestic consumption becomes the top priority, through tax reduction policies, interest rate support and promoting spending incentive programs,” said Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, founder of the Vietnam Financial Advisors Community.

Credit institutions have also developed credit products and banking services specifically for the consumer sector with lower interest rates and increased lending for living needs. Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan said that banks, financial companies and financial technology applications (Fintech) are promoting the provision of convenient lending services to people. However, maintaining a reasonable interest rate level, helping people not consider consumer loans a burden, will be a key factor in promoting credit growth.

In addition, credit limits for financial companies and banks need to be strictly managed, because the bad debt ratio in this sector is quite high, from 10 - 15% for debt groups 3, 4, 5. Therefore, a reasonable interest rate policy, combined with effective credit management is a necessary solution to both promote spending and ensure the stability of the financial system. Consumer credit should be promoted within a suitable risk management framework. Management agencies can consider adjusting the risk coefficient for consumer loans, helping to balance credit expansion and bad debt control.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance has sent an official dispatch to ask for opinions from ministries, branches and localities on the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on reducing value added tax (VAT). Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance proposed to reduce VAT by 2% from July 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026 for groups of goods and services currently applying a tax rate of 10% (to 8%). The policy of reducing VAT by 2% has contributed to reducing the selling price of goods and services for consumers, thereby promoting business production and consumption of enterprises. In the first 2 months of 2025, the amount of VAT reduced according to Resolution No. 174/2024/QH15 is estimated at about VND 8,300 billion.

Many opinions believe that policies to reduce taxes, fees, defer debt payments, and improve transparency and infrastructure will help strengthen market and people's confidence. When confidence is built, individuals, households and businesses will boldly invest and expand production and business. Only then can the economy maintain sustainable growth momentum, achieving the target of domestic consumption increasing by over 12%.

According to baotintuc.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/kich-cau-tieu-dung-tao-dong-luc-tang-truong-post399532.html