Customs officers at Trang Bang Industrial Park inspect imported machines. Photo: Hong Son

The General Department of Customs said, Clause 4 of Article 6 of Circular 39/2015 amended and supplemented in Clause 5 of Article 1 of Circular 60/2019 of the Ministry of Finance provides that “If the imported goods are machines/equipment imported together with operating software, the customs value is the transaction values of such machines/equipment and operating software.

In case the operating system is written or installed in carrier media for installation on machines/equipment after importation:

In case the value of the operating system is not separate from the value of the carrier media, the customs value is the transaction value of the imported machines/equipment and operating system inclusive of the value of the carrier media.

If the buyer must pay for the right to use the operating system for installation on and operation of machines/equipment, the actual payment for such right must be aggregated with the value of the imported machines/equipment.

Also, Clause 2 of Article 16 of Circular 39 of the Ministry of Finance provides for Methods for distribution as below: Distribution according to the quantity; Distribution according to the weight; Distribution according to the volume; and Distribution according to the value of the sale invoice.

Therefore, Kyeuence Vietnam Co., Ltd imports operating systems which are written or installed in CD, the value of the operating system includes the royalty fee, and this operating system is used for many servo motors of the same category and is installed for one motor and other motors in the same category, the customs declarant may choose one of the methods for value distribution described in Clause 2 of Article 16 of Circular 19 to declare the value of the imported operating system and must follow the principle that the software value must be completely distributed to the imported servo motors.

The HS determination of the servo motor is in accordance with current law.