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Speakers at the talk show.

Building a stable and predictable policy environment

According to Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, economic development requires an amendment to the list of goods classification for imports and exports. Accordingly, the HS code List of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and List of ASEAN Harmonised Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) Codes are revised under the roadmap every five years.

Therefore, Decrees on preferential export and import tariffs are promulgated under the implementation roadmap to internalize tariff commitments, and meet international standards under the HS/AHTN, reduce problems related to goods classification and facilitate customs declaration and valuation.

Decrees promulgate special preferential export and import tariff for the period 2022 - 2027 in accordance with the List of Vietnam's import and export goods and the implementation of the HS code List and AHTN 2022.

“The conformity and consistency of the list of goods with international standards will make the enforcement transparent and facilitate trade. This is also the legal basis for Vietnam's special preferential import tax to implement FTAs under a specific roadmap and applies stably in the next five years. This contributes to building a stable and predictable policy environment for importers and exporters in Vietnam," said Mr. Pham Tuan Anh.

Mr. Pham Tuan Anh said, as per international practices, some countries such as the US and Canada annually update tax rates, however, to serve as a basis for making production and business plans of enterprises, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Government for promulgation the five-year roadmap tax schedules that are in accordance with ANTH and maintain preferential conditions to ensure the consistency, easy-to-monitor, and easy-to-enforce nature of the legal system.

"Besides, the documents also ensure a roadmap for handling requests for updating, supplementing and the agreements are revised to avoid problems in implementation," said the leader of the International Cooperation Department.

Also according to Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, the promulgation of the Decree on preferential export tariffs and special preferential import tariffs of Vietnam to fulfill commitments at Free Trade Agreements and Preferential Trade Agreements (FTAs/PTAs) continues to institutionalize objectives and directions of international economic integration, strict compliance with commitments in international treaties to which Vietnam is a member, contributing to further facilitating and promoting trade exchanges between Vietnam and countries, which is expected to bring positive effects to Vietnam's economic development.

Decrees ensure stability in application, especially regulations on conditions for preferential treatment.

According to the head of the International Cooperation Department, the provisions of the Decrees are inherited; to ensure stability in application, especially the regulations on conditions for preferential treatment. In addition, the Decree also has some new points to ensure the implementation such as revising tariff commitments in the Agreements to be consistent with the List of imported and exported goods on the basis of AHTN 2022; expanding the scope enjoying incentives with a number of agreements to countries that have just announced international treaties in force, such as Peru in the CPTPP or Ceuta and Melila in the EVFTA; perfecting and revising a number of contents to increase legal clarity, avoid problems in implementation such as regulations on preferential treatment for non-tariff zones, regulations on conditions for preferential treatment.

“In terms of tariffs, compared to the AHTN 2017 with 10,813 tax lines, AHTN 2022 has been expanded to 11,414 tax lines, accordingly, the number of tax lines in the Decrees has increased,” said Mr. Pham Tuan Anh.

Enterprises must clearly understand the regulations to enjoy import and export tax incentives.

Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department (Ministry of Finance) speaks at the talk show.

Besides, in addition to a number of FTAs that have ended the tariff reduction roadmap such as ATIGA (2018), ASEAN - China (2020), ASEAN - Korea (2021) and AANZFTA (2022), other FTAs continue the tariff reduction roadmap. Moreover, to preserve Vietnam's interests when implementing the FTA/PTA, the tariff schedules continue to maintain the separation of tax lines at a 10-digit level. However, the implementation process has been stable, the number of 10-digit tax lines reduced to only 497 (down 124 lines compared to the former version).

However, the tax transition process fully complies with the commitments that we are implementing and does not create negative effects on the use of incentives by enterprises.

Management agencies and enterprises coordinate to bring maximum benefits to enterprises.

In order for businesses to take advantage of special incentives of Import and export tariff and boost business production, Mr. Pham Tuan Anh said that through the survey, the biggest limitation of making use of tax incentives under FTAs is the awareness, the ability to access information and information analysis of potential beneficiaries.

Through analysis and assessment of a whole period, these agencies have also taken measures and solutions and were appreciated by competent levels.

“Currently, the systems of guidelines for horizontal and vertical analysis of international commitments, including commitments on import and export tax, have been updated regularly, which is useful material for enterprises, even if they have limited knowledge of this sector,” said Mr. Pham Tuan Anh.

Vietnam's business associations, including FDI enterprises operating in Vietnam, are also very active in developing guidelines and updating information.

These tools and information, together with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, require the promulgating agency to strictly and fully implement the process of publishing information and gathering opinions of all relevant parties in developing legal documents.

“For businesses, knowledge is the power and the basis for creating competitiveness, so businesses should take advantage of opportunities to access information, support and make comments to legal documents,” Mr. Pham Tuan Anh said.

In addition, the representative of the International Cooperation Department also said that enterprises need to raise their knowledge and have the right to feedback on policies. Therefore, they should participate in perfecting institutions, and understand regulations to enjoy incentives. Management agencies and enterprises should coordinate to bring maximum benefits to enterprises.

To support businesses to make good use of the provisions of 17 Decrees on preferential tax tariff, Mr. Pham Tuan Anh said that the agencies have analyzed and evaluated on the implementation of the FTA.

Regarding implementation tools, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has updated information related to tax rates, legal framework for each tax line, conditions for enjoying incentives on its website. Enterprises can search HS codes or description of goods on the website. They may search about the conditions to enjoy incentives, especially regulations on the rules of origin.

"The regular use of those tools will create skills and knowledge for businesses in making the most of incentives," said the Deputy Director.