Vietnam should remove all discount limits: industry insiders

The new decree, issued last week, freed products and services sales orchestrated by the government within a specific time period from discount limits.

But business owners say the current 50 percent discount limit, placed in 2006 to promote healthy competition, has outlived its purpose and is actually stifling Vietnamese firms.

Dang Quynh Doan, director of a Vietnamese fashion firm, told the Thanh Nien newspaper that the current discount limit was impeding Vietnamese businesses, especially in the fashion industry. She said products of this industry are constantly changing, and the leftover inventories can only be cleared with high discounts.

“The government should abolish the current discount limit and allow businesses to decide on the discounts themselves. This would benefit the customers as well,” Doan said.

Echoing Doan, a director of a HCMC supermarket said without a discount limit, businesses would be able to decide on their own discounts more freely, and it would breed healthier competition.

Head of Vietnam Advertising Association said the current discount limit was originally established to promote healthy competition, but now that Vietnam already has its own laws on business competition, the discount limit is no longer necessary, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Agreeing with the opinions, Truong Thanh Duc, a lawyer, said that increasing the discount limit for sales events orchestrated by the government is unfair, and that many other businesses are already discounting their products over the limit without being caught.

“There are currently many businesses which discount their products by 80-90 percent. I’ve even bought some of them, but I don’t see any authority trying to shut them down,” he said.

The new decree is set to take effect on July 15.