Jewelry seen in a shop in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City on May 18, 2020.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran 

The Vietnam Gold Traders Association has called on the government to scrap its plan to impose a 2-percent export tax, warning it could hurt the country’s competitiveness. 

Vietnam already has low competitiveness compared to other countries, and would cause official exports to fall and illegal exports to avoid the tax to surge, it said in a proposal to the Ministry of Finance.

The VGTA said companies are not allowed to import gold to produce jewelry, but has to source them domestically even though prices are often VND6-8 million ($264-352) per kilogram higher.

Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore impose no import or export tax and have more advanced technology, it said.

They encourage jewelry exports, which are worth $10 billion for Thailand, $8 billion for Singapore and $6 billion for Indonesia.

Vietnam’s exports were worth $2.6 billion last year.

There is currently no tax for jewelry with gold content under 95 percent, but the Ministry of Finance has proposed taxing all uniformly, saying customs officials have difficulty in determining gold purity.