In a bid to avoid nicotine addiction, Vietnam’s health minister has suggested removing taxes on vapes, arguing that it could lead to misunderstandings, and called on the government to ban new tobacco products.
Vietnam’s new tobacco tax rules may be scrapped
According to Baovanhoan, reported on November 24, Vietnam’s Minister of Health, D ao H Kang ng Lan, at a group discussion on the Special Consumption Tax Law (Amendment) project held on November 22, proposed canceling the special consumption tax on new tobacco because it is easy to cause misunderstandings.
In the draft law, the health minister proposes to delete the provision in Article 12 on the unique excise duty on new tobacco, such as vapes and heated tobacco, which “empowers the government to impose a special excise duty on certain new categories of tobacco imported, produced and operated”.
The Health Minister says easy to misunderstand
She explained that the current Tobacco Harm Prevention Act has no provisions for new tobacco, including vapes and heated cigarettes, so it is unreasonable to include them in the scope of taxation without a legal basis.
In addition, Article 2, paragraph 3, of the Act states: “If necessary, the State shall modify the object of special consumption tax in this article in the light of changes in economic and social conditions.” The minister noted that this preparation feature could be misinterpreted as permitting the production and sale of such products.
The Ministry of Health also proposed to withdraw ML (ml) from the tobacco tax rate table because tobacco and its raw materials do not include the vape component, so the vape component is only present in e-cigarettes, so the provision in ML should not be added, otherwise, it can be considered as a regulatory body supporting the sale of e-cigarettes.
The minister also urged the government to ban the use of vapes, heated cigarettes, and other new tobacco products to avoid more people becoming addicted to tobacco tar. She pointed out that the Ministry of Health will promote the revision and supplement of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Law in the future.
