Finance Ministry to control prices

Customers buy bread at Big C supermarket in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran viet

HA NOI — The Ministry of Finance has said it will step in to control prices on the domestic market following predictions that they are expected to rise by the end of the year.

Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the ministry's Pricing Management Department, said the recovery of the world economy and increasing demand for materials for production and business would push prices up on the world market by the end of this year.

He said the department should be able to keep the expected increases down to a modest level. However, the high demand for goods and services before Tet, plus any diseases in livestock would keep the pressure on prices.

Difficulty in raising capital for production and electricity costs would also add to the pressure.

Thoa said the State would check on the amount of goods in stock and register sales prices of 17 essential goods to avoid speculation.

By the end of December, prices of electricity, coal, paper, cement, tap water, transport would be stabilised.

Last week, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called on ministries, agencies and municipal and provincial authorities to implement strategies to stabilise the market and boost production.

Directive No1875/CT-TTg has been designed to ensure Viet Nam's growth rate reaches 6.5 per cent and the consumer price index (CPI) does not rise above 8 per cent. — VNS

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S Korea hosts dialogue on Viet Nam tax, customs rules

SEOUL — A dialogue with 118 local businesses on Viet Nam's new tax and customs policies was held in Seoul on Friday .

The event was part of a working visit to South Korea by a Finance Ministry delegation led by Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan.

The delegation answered questions on the country's tax incentives, corporate taxes, value added tax and new regulations on customs procedures. Tuan said more than 70 per cent of Korean businesses investing in Viet Nam were up to medium size so they faced difficulties in accessing policies and dealing with issues on procedures and tax incentives.

He said Viet Nam's Finance Ministry and General Department of Taxation had planned to co-ordinate with South Korean authorised agencies in facilitating Korean businesses' operations in Viet Nam.

Tuan said the dialogue was the first between the two sides since their tariff co-operation agreement was signed since March 1995.

Before the dialogue, the Vietnamese delegation worked with the South Korean departments of taxation and customs to exchange experiences in building automatic information systems.

South Korea is a world leader in the application of e-technology in tax and customs procedures. — VNS

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Official rejects VN’s violations of WTO price policy

The Finance Ministry’s Circular 122/2010/TT-BTC does not break any of
Vietnam's price commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO),
said an official.

Director of the ministry’s Price
Management Department Nguyen Tien Thoa said the document strictly
adheres to the Government’s Decree 75/2008/ND-CP of June 9, 2008, which
defines milk as a commodity whose prices should be stabilised. It amends
and supplements earlier Circular 104 in order to prevent unreasonable
price hike of imported powdered milk.

The Finance Ministry did not promulgate any new policy, Thoa stressed.

Circular 122, which will take effect as of October 1, stipulates that
importers and traders must register and report prices of powdered milk
for under six-year-old children to the price management agency.

The Finance Ministry’s explanation followed feedbacks from several
foreign-invested milk trading companies and the Ambassadors of
Australia, Canada , New Zealand , the US and the European Union.

In a common letter addressed to the ministry, the
ambassadors said the new price control mechanism would affect Vietnam
’s efforts towards a market economy as well as its performance of WTO
regulations.

It could also hamper the attraction of foreign investment and development of the labour market, the diplomats said./.

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