Many cities and provinces in the Mekong River Delta have raced to set up industrial clusters without carefully considering their effectiveness, wasting several thousand ha of farmland and jeopardising residents’ livelihoods

Discussion about the draft law on house and land tax was the centre of attention among deputies during the sixth session of the 12th National Assembly (NA) on Saturday, which was chaired by Vice NA Chairman Nguyen Duc Kien.

Ho Chi Minh City should not rush into installing an electronic toll system downtown. Both the city’s infrastructure and its citizens are simply not ready for it.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has chosen cars with 6-9 seats and engines smaller than 1.5 liters as the strategic product line for Vietnam’s auto industry, which will benefit from various tax incentives.

Though personal income tax (PIT) was levied on property transactions over a month ago, it has yet to bring about the expected results following the spirit of Circulation 161/2009/TT-BTC issued by the Finance Ministry. Problems abound, hindering not only property traders and real estate companies, but the taxman as well. Different guidelines from tax organizations, plus uncertain rates of 2% on the entire value or 25% on the profit margin to be imposed on property transactions, has made many traders pull out of deals and show a wait-and-see attitude toward the property market. As a result, the local real estate market is witnessing a strong decline in trades.

HCMC – The number of rice exporters in Vietnam, currently at over 200, will be strongly reduced as a draft decree setting stricter criteria has won approval from many officials, experts and traders at a seminar here last week.