HANOI -- Vietnam's finance ministry said it has proposed increasing value-added tax (VAT) to 12% in 2019, from 10% currently, as part of measures to reduce record public debt.
The ministry forecasts public debt will reach 64.8% of gross domestic product in 2017 - only 0.2% off the limit set by the government for the years 2016 to 2018.
The ministry proposed increasing the sales tax in a report on Tuesday that also raised the possibility of a further rise in VAT to 14% in 2021.
The VAT increase would still need to be approved by the government and would go into effect from January 2019.