Vietnam imported 41,238 CBU (completely built-up) cars of all kinds, worth some USD968 million, in the first five months of the year, reported the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Of this, the country’s biggest import auto market was Thailand with 12,538 CBU autos, followed by the Republic of Korea (7,696), India (5,918), China (5,841) and Japan (3,071).

Notably, in May, CBU autos imported from India occupied the local market, especially small cars. The model is expected to be the highlight of the low and average price auto market in Vietnam in the coming time.

Specifically, this month, more than 3,500 low-cost cars from India were shipped to Vietnam, worth USD18.7 million. On average, each Indian car was priced at VND112.2 million.

The number of Indian cars to Vietnam increased rapidly because the country only imported 180 cars from India in the first two months of the year but after three months, the import growth from the market rose nearly 20 fold.

Most autos imported from India are four-seat cars or small vans, such as Hyundai i10 or four to seven-seat models of India’s joint venture with the RoK or Japan.

According to the Law on Value-added Tax (VAT), Special Consumption Tax or Tax Administration passed by the National Assembly, the special consumption tariff on imported CBU autos for 9 seats and less, with cylinder capacity of less than 1.5 liters, will be reduced from 45% to 40% from July 1st, and will continue to drop to 35% from January 1st, 2018.

This is considered one reason behind the rising imports of autos with low cylinder capacity over the past few months./.

( Compiled by VNF )