Second-hand car imports accelerate

The number of second-hand cars imported in September more than doubled from the previous month, the General Customs Department said.

More than 400 vehicles were imported for US$668,011.

Of them, 327 were of below 1,000 cc capacity, mostly Korean-made Kia Morning cars at $3,800 to $4,000.

As a result, they were not subject to the new import tariffs on second-hand cars imposed by the Ministry of Finance in late August since the taxes only apply to larger vehicles.

Vehicles with less than nine seats and of between 1,500 cc and 2,500 cc capacity will attract a duty of 82 percent plus a fixed tax of $5,000.

Those of more than 2,500 cc will be levied 77 percent tax plus $15,000.

Earlier there were only fixed taxed on used cars.

Vietnam has allowed imports of second-hand cars since May 2006. In the next two years more than 10,000 cars were imported and the number continued to rise.

In August the government began to tighten regulations since their imports were at times nearly equal to that of new vehicles, imposing the new rates.

The customs agency said the number of new cars imported in September had fallen by 9.9 percent month-on-month to more than 3,000 units.