The Ministry of Finance of Vietnam has proposed to include online games in the list of goods that fall under the luxury tax. In his opinion, this will greatly increase revenues to the state budget.
The ministry also believes that because of the tax, Vietnamese gamers will play less, and this will have a good effect on their health and reduce the level of gaming addiction.
The Ministry held a number of meetings with government authorities and research institutes. 90% of the participants supported the proposal, and 10% opposed it. Among the opponents were the Ministry of Information and Communications, as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. They said that a tax on online games would make Vietnam less attractive to developers and harm the country’s economy.
In 2014, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam already proposed to introduce a tax on online games, but then the initiative was rejected.