On April 23, in HCM City, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) cooperated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to organise a workshop to disseminate Decree 18/2021/ND-CP (referred to as Decree 18) amending, supplementing articles of Decree 134/2016/ND-CP guiding on the provisions of the Law on Export and Import Duties with the participation of more than 200 enterprises in the south.

Representative of organiser answered questions of enterprises in the workshop.
Photo: T.D

Many new points on facilitating to businesses

Speaking at the seminar, Bui Bang Toan, Deputy Director of Import-Export Duty Department, General Department of Vietnam Customs, said Decree 18 took effect from April 25, 2021 with many new points to solve problems arising in the process of implementing Decree 134/2021/ND-CP, and at the same time improve the efficiency of State management of import and export activities in the context of vibrant international integration, contributing to completing policies to facilitate the development of import-export activities.

Decree 18 has many new points, such as regulation on tax exemption has created conditions to attract investment and business in Vietnam, materialise many provisions related to preferential tariff policies for processing, export production, on-spot import-export and import-export goods in accordance with international treaties. Decree 18 has amended and supplemented 21 groups of the issue with the aim of reforming administrative procedures to facilitate import and export activities, improve national competitiveness, attract investment, promote export production with high added value.

Besides, Decree 18 stipulating the transition of preferential import tariff to those exempt from import duty as specified in Clause 9, Article 1 (natural disasters, epidemics, agricultural products and other special cases); regulations on transition for on-spot import and export goods to be applied from September 1, 2016; regulations on transition for cases of tax exemption approved by the Prime Minister will continue to be implemented until the total quantity of goods is imported.

Sharing about the trade facilitation work of the Customs authority, Alistair Gall, senior trade facilitation expert of the Trade Facilitation programme sponsored by USAID, said through this seminar, it showed cooperation between the GDVC and the trade facilitation programme (TFP) funded by USAID. The workshop reflected the commitment of TFP in continuing to support the Vietnamese Government and GDVC in the implementation of customs reforms and trade facilitation.

Representative of PouYeun Vietnam Company raised a question at the workshop.
Photo: T.D

The promulgation of Decree 18 would help strengthen the legal basis for the effective implementation of the Law on Export and Import Duty and solve problems of firms. The facilitation project would continue the support of another previous project of USAID in the development and dissemination of Decree 18 to the business community before it comes into effect on April 25. The implementation of the decree would contribute to facilitating import and export activities, enhancing Vietnam's national competitiveness, Gall emphasised.

Solving problems of processed goods, export production

At the conference, representatives of the Import-Export Duty Department answered many problems for businesses related to products imported for processed and exported production, import-export tax exemption.

Answering representatives of PouYuen Vietnam Co., Ltd. about declaring and paying tax for on-spot imported goods must register customs declaration in other forms, the representative of the Import-Export Duty Department said that according to regulations at Point b, Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree 18, on-spot imported products registered customs declarations under the type of import processing subject to import tax exemption if the importer satisfies provisions at Points a and b, Clause 2, Article 10 of this decree. For on-spot imported products registered customs declaration under a different type, the importer must declare and pay tax in accordance with the tax rate and dutiable value of the imported product at the time of registration of customs declaration.

If the importer has paid import duty for production and business and has put the imported products into the production for export production and it has actually exported abroad or into the non-tariff area, import tax will be refunded in accordance with Article 36 of Decree 18.

Besides that, facing the questions of firms about on-site export production enterprises being exempted from tax such as processing enterprises, to create fairness, a representative of the Import-Export Duty Department said that the amendment of Decree 34 from the draft was implemented from 2017 until now and a decree has been newly issued. The contents have been discussed many times with ministries, sectors and associations, especially for policies of processed goods and export production. When the Law on Import and Export Duty was formulated, it was a new step in the balance between processed products and export production. Previously, export production goods received a grace period of 275 days and to ensure fairness with processed goods, it has been changed to tax exemption for export production goods.

However, in the implementation process, there were still problems. For example: besides export production firms that complied with the regulations, some enterprises took advantage of this policy to import raw materials for export production but did not carry out export production and intentionally consumed domestically. There were also cases where the source of goods of the enterprise disappeared. Therefore, the Decree 18 issued to enhance taxpayers' accountability and ensure transparency of customs procedures.

At the seminar, the Import-Export Duty Department also answered questions of businesses related to tax exemption for scrap and excess raw materials and supplies already imported for processing; procedures for VAT payment, special consumption tax, and environmental protection tax (if any) to the tax authority to facilitate firms, avoid arising problems when declaring, deducting tax.