Experts have recommended tax policies be improved to promote green growth in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Specialists have recommendedrevisions to tax policies in order to steer the economy towards green growthand sustainable development in Vietnam.
They made the suggestions at a workshop held bythe Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in Hanoi on March 11.
Nguyen Manh Hai, head of CIEM’s department forsocial issues, said that measures to promote green growth and sustainabledevelopment may vary from country to country.
However, all national solutions aim to boost green productionand consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change, anddevelop green technologies and industries that use little natural resources soas to encourage producers to invest in environmental protection, he said.
In Vietnam, tax policies related to green growthinclude tax incentives encouraging green production and consumption, as well astax measures discouraging the manufacturing and use of environmentallyhazardous products, Hai added.
However, these policies are not strong enough tomotivate and promote green production and consumption, he said, adding that thetax policies do not match real life circumstances, with tax collection from thesemeasures not yet able to make up for the damage caused by non-environmentallyfriendly production and consumption.
Hai recommended that incentives on corporateincome tax should be perfected in terms of both tax rates and incentiveduration so as to attract investment to industries that apply environmentally-friendlytechnologies and manufacture products with high added value, while facilitatingclean energy production and public transport.
The specialist also suggested the specialconsumption tax on bio-fuel be reduced to half of that on mineral fuel, thuscreating a considerable price gap between biological and mineral petrol.
Dang Thi Thu Hoai, Secretary of the PrimeMinister’s Economic Advisory Group, called on the scope of the environmentalprotection tax to be expanded to cover all areas that cause negative impacts onthe environment, like chemical fertilisers and exhaust fumes. –VNA
VNA
