Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province: Enterprises complain about policies

	Dialogue on Customs dutypolicy with Korean enterprises
	The business community has many pressing issues with the Ministry of Industry and Trade
	Enterprises pay high attention to the Plan on Customs Reform and Modernization for 2016-2020

The leaders of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau respond to the questions of enterprises at the conference. Photo: Nguyen Hue.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Quang, a representative of a branch of PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) in Vung Tau said: Enterprises in the field of oil and petroleum exploitation are facing problems as a result of Circular 14/2015/TT-BKHĐT of November 17, 2015 of the Ministry of Planning and Investment on issuing the list of machinery, equipment, spare parts, alternative means of transport, raw materials, supplies, components and semi-products to identify goods which are exempt from VAT and import tax. Accordingly, the list of goods issued in the Circular includes 8 separate categories, however, under the provisions of the Circular, the domestic goods in the list attached to the Circular are applied under general regulations, which does not depend on the purpose of use.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Quang, the above provisions of the Ministry of Planning and Investment mean that the list of goods produced in a sector will be considered to be potentially produced in another sector. However, many devices which other sectors have produced but the petroleum industry must still import such as cables on the oil rig, and machinery on the oil rig, etc still are considered to be domestic goods, leading to no tax exemption. Besides, a number of goods have unclear names, causing difficulties for enterprises to determine whether goods are exempt from tax or not.

In addition to the above problems, the representative of PVEP also said many enterprises were facing problems related to inspections, analysis and classification of goods, which took too much time and cost a lot, negatively influencing operations of enterprises. Besides, in the process of analysis and classification of goods, goods are not preserved, which is very dangerous because many goods contain chemicals or special substances which are required to be kept in isolation.

In order to solve the problems mentioned above, representatives of the petroleum industry proposed to have the contents in Circular 14-2015 /TT-BKHĐT, removed or clarify the checklist of goods under the Circular, define domestic goods when implementing Customs procedures for import and issue a list of goods which can be produced in Vietnam for oil and petroleum companies.

For problems related to inspections of goods, the representative of PVEP said that enterprises should comply with current regulations. But after a month of sending samples for assessment, if enterprises do not receive results of the analysis and classification of goods, Customs offices shall accept declarations and conduct the release of goods for enterprises to preserve the goods.

In addition, a representative of Uy Viet Shoes Co., Ltd said the company was in trouble with the provisions on inspections of formaldehyde and aromatic amines under Circular 37/2015/ TT-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The company has to implement Customs procedures for importing materials as samples with the fee from 1,400 to 1,800 vnd per sample. From October to date, the company has had to pay a monthly average of 100 million vnd for inspections of formaldehyde. This causes a lot of difficulties for the company because of the value of raw materials that enterprises import is quite low, even 3-4 times smaller than the inspection fees that the company must pay.

According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Toan, Head of Exploitation Division of An Hung Tuong Steel Company, during the implementation of Customs procedures at the border, Customs created favourable conditions for businesses. However, for imported scrap steel to be highly taxed by the Government, there is a big difference between the price of this kind of goods in the domestic market and in the world market. Therefore, all Customs declarations must be implemented through counseling prices, which takes a lot of time. When the company implements Customs declaration, there are normally two specialists of the company who come to the Customs offices for explanation. In order to simplify procedures and save time for enterprises, Customs authorities should consider a declaration per month if the price of goods complies with the actual price.

In addition to the problems mentioned above, many companies have trouble with the procedures and Customs policies related to the taxable price of goods, confirmation of taxpayers at banks, reimbursement, additional declarations, clearance time, and some of the problems related to Customs procedures on the VNACCS/VCIS system. Most of the problems related to policies and Customs procedures of these enterprises have been responded to by the leaders of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Customs, and representatives of the import-export tax office and Customs Branches.

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Moreover, a representative of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Customs said that it would note and synthesize the complaints and feedback about problems related to Circulars of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and proposed the General Department of Customs, and the Ministry of Finance seek solutions to support the business community. For special problems of the petroleum industry, next week, the Ba Ria- Vung Tau Department of Customs will have another meeting to seek specific solutions to support companies in the petroleum industry as soon as possible.