Heavier tax to be imposed on beer, wine and tobacco
(VOV) -The special consumption tax levied on beer, wine and tobacco will increase by 10-15% as from 2015 in a bid by the government to reduce consumption of these products.
The increase was recently announced by the Finance Ministry along with other amendments to the law on the special consumption tax.
The tax on beer, wine and tobacco products will hit a record high of 75% in 2015, and is likely to go up to 85% in 2018 and sales are expected to contribute more than VND2,900 billion to the State budget in 2016 and VND7,700 billion in 2018.
The Ministry’s statistics showed that beer and wine sales in 2013 were roughly 3 billion litres – equivalent to 32 litres per capita.
This huge consumption ranked Vietnam No1 in Southeast Asia for per capita consumption and No3 in Asia, just behind China and Japan.
Abusive use of beer and wine has negatively impacted people’s health and threatened social security due to rising social evil, violence and traffic accidents, especially during festivals and holidays.