There are still many concerns about applying special consumption tax to online games.

One of the most concerned issues today is the question of whether or not to apply special consumption tax (SCT) to games. Many related opinions have been given by experts regarding this bill.

In his general opinion, Mr. Do Viet Hung - General Secretary of the Vietnam Entertainment E- Sports Association (VIRESA) said that the draft law amending the Special Consumption Tax Law when adding online games is not appropriate in terms of timing in the general context that Vietnamese enterprises are facing many difficulties, at the same time these policies will have multi-dimensional impacts on enterprises, consumers and society.

Mr. Do Viet Hung - General Secretary of Vietnam Entertainment E-Sports Association (VIRESA)

According to Mr. Hung, when e-sports is a key field that Vietnam has a lot of potential for development, imposing special consumption tax will reduce the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises. Because, to operate, online game service businesses always need to ensure licensing regulations on content. Forming a control tool for these products will not be consistent with cross-border game products. Meanwhile, no country has been recorded applying special consumption tax to the online game industry.

Therefore, VIRESA recommends that the tax law drafting agency and related organizations consider comprehensively, carefully, and that it is not advisable to include online games in the special consumption tax.

"The goal of imposing special consumption tax is to regulate consumer behavior and increase state budget revenue, but applying this tax to the gaming industry is completely different. According to data from the Vietnam Gaming Alliance, out of 100 people participating in online games, only less than 10 people pay (the exact number is 5.8 people), up to 90% of players do not pay. This means that adjusting the behavior of tax collectors is adjusting the behavior of 5.8 people - a very small number, adjusting this behavior cannot achieve the goal," Mr. Tran Phuong Huy, Director of VTC Intecom, gave his opinion and recommended that special consumption tax should not be applied to online games.

Mr. Huy said that online games are a unique industry worldwide . Even before the tax is imposed, consumers are already using foreign services, so imposing taxes on online games is unintentionally increasing unfair competition, leading to reverse protection for foreign countries.

To manage online games, Mr. Huy said we should add regulations on issuing chip-embedded ID cards to people under 14 years old, so that when minors create online game accounts, they will have to send authentication to the management agency, helping the State and businesses manage online game players' accounts more closely in the next 1-2 years, thereby managing and controlling consumer behavior instead of applying the special consumption tax policy.

Although supporting the Ministry of Finance 's goal of protecting children's health and guiding consumers, director Nguyen Thuy Dung of SohaGame believes that the special consumption tax solution does not solve the bill's desired goal. According to her, less than 2% of gamers in the Vietnamese market pay in-game fees, so the affected subjects only account for less than 2% of the total number of gamers that we want to control through tax imposition.

Overview of the workshop on comments on the Proposal to develop the Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended) recently organized by VCCI in Hanoi

Commenting at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Nhat Long - Department of Legislation, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs - shared: "The impact report of the Ministry of Finance is not convincing because it only raises very general issues. Therefore, further research is needed to assess the social and economic impacts, such as potential evils, how they affect human health... Universities have recently been moving to include this industry to build the gaming industry in the future, and thanks to the online gaming industry, a lot of jobs have been created". Therefore, Mr. Long thinks that the Ministry of Finance should conduct further research and consider more appropriately in imposing special consumption tax.

The information at the workshop is an early opportunity to grasp the thoughts, aspirations and circumstances of businesses today, very timely to provide input to policy makers. The opinions expressed will be recorded, and VCCI will synthesize and send to the agencies.

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