Vietnam, amid a recent decline in world oil prices, raised import tax on petroleum products to 15 percent from 10 percent, according to a local tax agency on Wednesday.

The new tariff came into force on Jan. 10, the Tax Policy Department under the Finance Ministry said, noting that the country last month slashed the import tax to 10 percent from previous 20 percent.

Vietnam will remove price subsidies on some kinds of oil in mid- 2007 and those on all oil and petroleum products in early 2008, Vietnamese Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said recently.

Vietnam imported over 11 million tons of petroleum products worth more than 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, down 3.8 percent in volume but up 16.4 percent in value against 2005.

Meanwhile, it exported more than 16.6 million tons of crude oil totaling over 8.3 billion dollars, down 7.5 percent in volume but up 12.9 percent in value, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua