With local businesses still plagued by high unsold inventories, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has called on the Prime Minister to reduce the current value-added tax by half to help manufacturers in some industries overcome the ordeal. The VAT for the chemical, footwear and leather, fertilizer, and textile and garment sectors should be slashed from 10 percent to 5 percent, the ministry said at the government’s regular meeting on Monday. While the Prime Minister has approved a 50 percent reduction on land leasing fees this year, the ministry demanded that the incentive also be applied for 2013. Industrial production in the first nine months of this year has faced numerous difficulties, with the construction material sector suffering high unsold stock, while other industries face order shortages. The unsold inventory of the processing and manufacturing sector in the year to September rose 20.4 percent against the same period last year. The solution package issued by the government in September also failed to ease the hardship, as the inventory remained unchanged from a month earlier, the ministry said. Meanwhile other sectors, including apparels, footwear, cement, and electronic spare parts have suffered from a low consumption index. The ministry thus urged that more solutions to assist businesses should be implemented; especially those that can help them solve capital problems.