Special Consumption Tax Law 66/2025/QH15 (effective 1 January 2026, amended by Law 09/2026/QH15) is a rare case of the legislature publishing almost the entire tax increase roadmap for a decade in advance: cigarettes move to a mixed percentage-plus-specific mechanism, beer and alcohol rates rise year by year, and sugary drinks enter the taxable scope for the first time from 2027. For producers and importers of these goods, a pre-announced roadmap is both cost pressure and a planning advantage few tax changes offer.
The concrete roadmap: a specific levy added to cigarettes, yearly rises for beer and alcohol
For cigarettes, the law keeps the 75 percent percentage rate and adds a specific amount per pack: VND 2,000 per pack from 1 January 2027, rising by VND 2,000 each year to VND 10,000 per pack in 2031. This specific mechanism bites hardest on the cheap cigarette segment — where VND 2,000 per pack is a large share of the selling price — and is a deliberate policy design to close the “low-price tax avoidance” space. For beer and spirits of 20 degrees and above, the percentage rate rises gradually by 5 percentage points per year over 2027–2031, from the current 65 percent to 90 percent in 2031; alcohol under 20 degrees follows a similar path from 35 percent to 60 percent in 2031.
Sugary drinks are the newly taxable item: soft drinks with sugar content above 5g/100ml bear 8 percent from 1 January 2027 and 10 percent from 1 January 2028. At the time of writing (October 2026), this obligation has not yet arisen — enterprises have a full preparation cycle to adjust recipes, sugar-content labelling and price architecture. Note that the 5g/100ml threshold is the taxable boundary: a product reformulated below the threshold leaves the taxable scope, a lawful product lever many producers are now computing.
Impact on prices, inventory and business planning
For goods taxed at the production and import stage, each increase flows straight into cost and retail price. Pricing strategy should be built on the multi-year roadmap rather than handled increase by increase: enterprises should model price elasticity by segment (the low-price segment is most sensitive to the cigarette specific levy and beer increases), decide how much of each rise is passed into price and how much absorbed in margin, and use the pre-announced increases to shift the product portfolio toward less sensitive or higher-value segments.
On inventory, the governing principle is to avoid speculative stockpiling around increase dates: goods produced or imported before an increase bear tax at the rate at the tax point as prescribed, but the tax authority watches abnormal production and inventory swings around adjustment dates closely, and the tax benefit of early stocking is usually smaller than capital and warehousing risk costs. Instead, production planning should be smoothed along the roadmap, distribution contracts renegotiated with SCT-linked price adjustment clauses, and pricing systems updated automatically at each of the law’s effective milestones.
Transition support for small enterprises
The SCT Law contains no dedicated transition support package for small enterprises in the beer, alcohol and tobacco industries — the long, pre-announced roadmap is itself the “cushion” the legislature chose, giving enterprises five years to adjust products and prices. Support, if any, comes from general policy outside the tax law: SME support legislation, preferential credit for technology renewal, and local industry programmes. Small enterprises in the chain (agents, sub-distributors) are affected mainly through input prices and purchasing power, so negotiating tax-variation sharing clauses in distribution contracts is the most practical protection tool.
One compliance note for the whole chain: higher SCT widens the profit gap between lawful goods and smuggled or counterfeit goods — lawful enterprises should invest in distribution channel control and complete stamps, labels and e-invoices, because unfair competition risk from tax-evaded goods rises together with the tax rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the concrete yearly increase roadmap?
Under SCT Law 66/2025/QH15: cigarettes keep the 75 percent rate and add a specific VND 2,000 per pack from 2027, rising by VND 2,000 per year to VND 10,000 per pack in 2031. Beer and alcohol of 20 degrees and above rise by 5 percentage points per year over 2027–2031, from 65 to 90 percent; alcohol under 20 degrees rises from 35 to 60 percent by 2031. All increase milestones are enacted in the law, no longer proposals.
2. Has the sugary drinks tax proposal been enacted into law?
Yes: sugary drinks above 5g/100ml bear SCT at 8 percent from 1 January 2027 and 10 percent from 1 January 2028 under Law 66/2025/QH15. As of October 2026 the obligation has not yet arisen; enterprises have time to reformulate below the 5g/100ml threshold or rebuild price architecture before the effective dates.
3. How should producers and importers adjust prices and inventory plans?
Build a multi-year pricing strategy on the enacted roadmap (model by segment, decide the pass-through share of each increase), avoid speculative stockpiling around increase dates because the benefit is smaller than capital costs and abnormal-swing scrutiny, negotiate SCT-linked price adjustment clauses in distribution contracts, and update pricing and invoicing systems at each effective milestone.
4. Is there transition support for small enterprises?
There is no dedicated package in the SCT Law for small enterprises in the sector; the policy “cushion” is the five-year pre-announced roadmap. Support must be sought in general policy: SME support legislation, technology renewal credit and local programmes. Within the distribution chain, the most practical tool is a tax-variation sharing clause in the contract.