Gate for overseas cars narrows with new rule    The government is set to tighten regulations on overseas Vietnamese bringing foreign cars into the country by imposing a limit on vehicle usage overseas in order to prevent tax evasion. The new regulation is set to take effect this April and will allow Viet kieu who come back here to settle to bring one car and one motorbike, provided that the car to be registered for at least six months with at least 10,000 kilometers accumulated overseas. The motorbike must also be registered overseas before the Viet kieu receives a permit to bring it to Vietnam. It said the vehicles also need to be legal in Vietnam and less than three years old, Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon Online reported. The Viet kieu owners of the vehicles will be exempted from import tariffs but still have to pay value-added tax, special consumption tax, and registration fees. They can transfer the vehicles to other people in Vietnam and the latter will have to pay registration fees. Current regulations only require the cars to be registered before the Viet kieu receives a residency permit in Vietnam. But those rules have been taken advantaged of for the smuggling of vehicles to Vietnam, the ministry said. It said the number of vehicles imported to Vietnam as Viet kieu assets surged significantly in 2012 and 2013. Viet kieu are defined as Vietnamese people holding valid foreign passports or papers of equal value, or those living overseas with legal papers for permanent residency. Thanh Nien News