The Excise Tax Law in Vietnam took effect in April 2009 with 11 articles. This Law has been amended and supplemented 4 times and the most recent time was in 2022. That shows that there have been problems that need to be resolved or policy requirements set out for this Law. To complete the law-making process in the XV term of National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee has issued Plan No. 81-KL-UBTVQH on orientations for Law Building Programme which assigned the Government to revise the Excise Tax Law in order to include it in the National Assembly's law and ordinance building programme.

On November 17, 2023 in Ninh Binh, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in cooperation with the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee organized an event to exchange views on the existing Excise Tax Law and possible changes to its content in the coming years. More than one hundred participants, consisting of members of parliament, business representatives and scientific experts, have got an overview of the current situation of the Vietnamese Excise Tax Law through various presentations. The presentations by international experts also highlighted the comparisons with other countries and thus identified international trends.

In the first presentation, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang, Deputy Director of Department of Management, supervises tax, fee and charge policies, Ministry of Finance, introduced the Excise Tax Act and explained the effects and opportunities such a law has on society. She also explained which international requirements are covered by the law. Finally, she presented the law and its objectives in detail. Following this presentation, Ms. Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, Deputy Director, Legal Department, Ministry of Health, presented the need for reform from a health perspective. During her presentation, she discussed the most controversial products and identified possible regulatory paths from her perspective.

This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Mark Goodchild, an economist at the WHO, on the taxation of harmful products using tobacco as an example. He explained the effects of increasing taxes on consumption and how tax revenues are affected by inflation. He then formulated concrete proposals for action for the Vietnamese tobacco tax law.

Evan Blecher, Macroeconomics at the World Bank Group, spoke about how to reduce the affordability of alcohol in Vietnam. He began by explaining the current situation and the reasons behind it and went into the country-specific challenge for Vietnam. He also outlined the tax developments that have resulted from increased alcohol consumption and presented policy options that could reduce alcohol consumption in the long term.

Finally, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ly Phuong Duyen, Senior Lecturer, Academy of Finance and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Sy Cuong, Deputy Head of Financial Analysis Department, Academy of Finance presented their findings and suggestions from their fields of expertise for improving the consumption tax. Their proposals included several specific relevant products and presented concrete individual methods for new taxation.

The purpose of these presentations was to enable participants to discuss the current situation and possible necessary changes at the end of the event. The discussion round was taken up by a wide range of participants, so that a comprehensive analysis took place thanks to the many contributions. The perspectives of the individual representatives provided a broad view of the changes that need to be made in the future.