The Ministry of Finance has said the registration fee for locally manufactured automobiles will be halved for six months until May 15 next year.
If the government issues the decree for the purpose after Nov. 15, the fee cut would apply from Dec. 1 to May 31, it said, explaining the reduction is meant to stimulate demand and help boost investment and revive supply chains in the auto industry.
When the fee was similarly cut in the second half of last year, it helped increase auto sales and tax collection increased by VND14.11 trillion ($613.48 million).
Over 102,900 automobiles produced in the country were registered in the first half of last year, and the number doubled in the second half when the fee was halved.
Some neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia have also offered preferential treatment to their domestic automobile industry amid the Covid outbreaks, it added.
Eleven foreign automobile firms that do not manufacture in Vietnam, including Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Volvo, Jeep, and Porsche, recently called on the government to apply the registration fee cut also to imported vehicles.
The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association had also called on the ministry for similar cuts for both local products and imports, but the ministry rejected it as not appropriate.
The association said its members sold 170,073 vehicles in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 1 percent. The numbers do not include sales of Audi, Jaguar-Land Rover, Subaru, Volkswagen, Volvo and some others who did not reveal their numbers.
According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam imported 112,000 complete built-up vehicles in the nine-month period, up 67.9 percent.