LookAtVietnam – The General Department of Customs, and ministries of Foreign Affairs and Public Security have begun an inspection of expat-owned cars

This is the first time that cars with registration plates beginning with the letters NN, NG and QT have undergone such a strict inspection.

According to Vu Do Anh Dung, deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security’s Traffic PoIice Department, cars can be bought by expats holding a temporary residency card and they are not subject to tax for two years or until their owners finish their working terms in Viet Nam.

Once the time is up, the cars have to be sold for export. If not, the owner is liable to pay tax.

However, according to the Ministry of Public Security, some cars have not been sold, and instead they have been passed onto new owners who have not paid tax.

The joint inspection team will clarify the origins and period of use of temporarily imported cars and ask embassy staff and expats to go through the procedures to sell or legally re-export vehicles in order to avoid the situation that an expat working for two terms at an embassy is allowed to temporarily import cars on two occasions.

Previously, in April, the General Department of Customs sent embassies and expats lists of nearly 1,700 cars with number plates of NN, NG and QT with detailed information and asked them to confirm these details.

The Ministry of Public Security’s Traffic Police Department lists 430 cars yet to have registered as being eligible for tax exemption.

The inspection team will continue working with embassies and international organisations to carry out further inspections of the outstanding vehicles. Cars which are still avoiding their tax liability will be publicly announced.

Dung said that the owners of these cars would be asked to pay the tax. If they refused to do so, they would receive punishment according to Vietnamese law.

Under the current regulations, cars imported into the country are subject to four different types of tax: import, special consumption, value added and registration taxes.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News