Registration fees to be halved to boost car sales in Vietnam

THE Vietnamese government is laying the groundwork to cut registration fees levied on locally-made cars by half as an economic slowdown threatens to affect demand for vehicles, Vietnam News reported.

The cut, scheduled to be effective for six months starting from July, would reduce the government’s budget revenue by up to nine trillion Vietnamese dong (RM1.7bil), according to the Ministry of Finance.

Vietnam’s auto industry production and sales dropped sharply in April from March, stoking concerns that the South-East Asian country’s auto market could shrink this year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) said in a report.

Retail sales of new vehicles by VAMA member-manufacturers slipped 39% to 50,017 units in the January-April period from a year ago, while sales of imported cars fell 16% to 42,784 units.

Car manufacturers recorded a drop of 19.3% in their production in the first four months of the year, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade in a report, adding that local businesses maintained a high inventory accumulation.

Despite the fact that Vietnam’s previous cuts in 2020 and 2022 helped revive the auto market as car sales soared, the Finance Ministry said the upcoming cut would not revive auto sales as much as the last two. — Xinhua