September 4, 2008
Tax on Vietnam's animal feed imports urged
Vietnam's Animal Husbandry Department has asked Vietnam's government to push through the import tax cut on raw feed materials following 20 to 50 percent increase of feed in recent months.
Additionally, the department also requested the government to regulate the ceiling price of raw materials. They also requested the government to guide commercial banks and financial organizations to create favourable lending conditions for feed ingredient importers.
In the second half of the year, users are expected to import VND26 trillion (US$1.57 billion) worth of raw materials for feed production, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance signed a decision to cut the import tax on some materials, including whey and whey powder.
Taxes of these materials have been reduced from 10 percent to 2 percent and the soy tariff has been lowered from 2 percent to zero.
Feed material importation has been practiced due to shortage of domestic supplies.
In the first six months of the year, the materials' import value reached US$1.52 billion, a year-on-year increase of 150 percent.
Hoang Kim Giao, the department's director said growth in animal husbandry was only a weak 0.03 percent in the first half of the year.
Demand for these products is seen to increase to 8 percent in the next 10 years.
