Proposal to reduce environmental protection tax; credit increases rapidly

- Ministry of Finance proposes to continue reducing environmental protection tax on gasoline

The Ministry of Finance has just sent an official dispatch to ministries, branches, People's Committees of provinces and cities and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) asking for opinions on the draft resolution on environmental protection tax rates for gasoline, oil, and lubricants to be applied in 2024. Specifically, the Ministry of Finance proposed to apply the tax reduction as prescribed in Resolution No. 30 of 2022 of the National Assembly Standing Committee. Accordingly, the environmental protection tax rate for gasoline (except ethanol) is reduced by VND2,000/liter; jet fuel, diesel, mazut, and lubricants is VND1,000/liter; lubricants is VND1,000/kg; kerosene is VND600/liter. To ensure continuity and timeliness, the Ministry of Finance proposed that the resolution take effect from January 1, 2024 (according to Tuoi Tre).

- Credit growth is rapid despite slow decline in lending interest rates

On October 15, Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh - Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch - said that credit in the city continued to grow positively. "By the end of September, total outstanding credit in Ho Chi Minh City reached more than 3.3 million billion VND, up 0.72% compared to August. This is the second consecutive month that credit in the city has grown at a fairly good rate, continuing to strengthen the credit growth trend in the remaining months of the year and in 2024," Mr. Lenh said (according to Tien Phong).

- Tourists to Phu Quoc reduced by 50%

Speaking at a meeting between the Chairman of the People's Committee of Kien Giang province and businesses, the Phu Quoc Tourism Investment and Development Association, and airlines on airfare mechanisms and tourism stimulus solutions, many businesses said that since the beginning of the year, the number of visitors to Phu Quoc has decreased compared to the same period last year. "Phu Quoc is facing many difficulties, the number of visitors has decreased by 40-50% compared to previous years," said Ms. Le Thi Hai Chau - Secretary of the Phu Quoc Tourism Investment and Development Association (according to Tien Phong).

- EVN, PVN, TKV were named because of a series of delayed and loss-making electricity and gas projects.

Thai Binh Thermal Power Plant.jpeg — Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant. (Photo: PVN)

The report on "implementation of policies and laws on energy development in the period 2016-2021" by the Energy Monitoring Team recently sent to the National Assembly Standing Committee pointed out that many key energy projects are behind schedule, including projects of EVN, PVN, and TKV. The consequence is that it could cause an energy imbalance in the Northern region (according to Lao Dong).

- Hundreds of small hydropower projects were removed from the planning.

Nearly 490 small hydropower projects and 8 cascade hydropower projects were removed from the planning by the authorities after review due to occupying too much land and low economic efficiency. The above information was reported by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, on behalf of the Prime Minister, to the National Assembly on the implementation of questions and resolutions from the beginning of the term (according to VnExpress).

- Change meter reading schedule in 27 northern provinces

In order to improve service quality, efficiency, transparency, and ease of monitoring in the management of electricity metering, index recording, and electricity billing for both electricity sellers and electricity buyers, the Northern Power Corporation is implementing a roadmap to change the meter reading schedule to the last days of the month in 2023. The change will be implemented according to the roadmap from 2023 to 2025 (according to VNA).

- Galaxy Cinema is continuously losing money

In the first half of 2023, Galaxy lost nearly 230 billion VND. In 2022, Galaxy lost more than 620 billion VND. In 2021, this enterprise also lost more than 370 billion VND. Thus, from 2021 to now, Galaxy's accumulated loss has reached more than 1,220 billion VND (according to Tien Phong).

- Export rice prices increased

After a few sharp declines, our country's rice export prices have increased again, approaching the peak of 643 USD/ton (the 5% rice price set on August 31). Vietnam's rice export prices are still high compared to similar products from competitors Thailand and Pakistan. Indonesia has become the largest customer of Vietnamese rice, spending 101.4 million USD to buy 166 thousand tons of our country's rice, 53 times higher than in September 2022. (See more)

Gold prices on the world market today, October 15, increased, ending the week with a price increase. Conflict in the Middle East pushed gold prices to the highest level in the past three weeks.

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