HCM City Customs guided and answered many questions from Korean enterprises

Director Dinh Ngoc Thang talked to Korean enterprises. Photo: T.H

Answering satisfactorily problems of enterprises

At the beginning of the conference, Director of HCM City Customs Department Dinh Ngoc Thang stated the message of the dialogue conference: "To listen and promptly answer difficulties and problems for enterprises, guide to understand the content of new document…".

After introducing the new points stipulated in Decree 59/2018 / ND-CP of the Government and Circular No. 39/2018 / TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance, the HCM City Customs Department spent time for Q&A section (question and answering).

The main problems focus on the content: Determine the amount of raw materials and ancillary materials undergone quite a loss; preferential for C/O; bar code, valuation for tax calculation; supporting cargo inspection.

Answering the questions asked by enterprises about price consultancy for imported goods, Director Dinh Ngoc Thang noted the new points in Decree 59 and Circular 39 on price consultation. Accordingly, in the consultation process, enterprises are entitled to ask the customs authorities once; the results of consultations for the imported goods would be announced after 60 days, if it was over 60 days, enterprises could request consultation again.

Answering difficulties of enterprises in determining the norms of raw materials, processing and export, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Director of Customs Control and Supervision Division of HCM City Customs Department said, according to current regulations, enterprises have to set their own norms and take responsibility for their norms, notify norms to customs authorities along with settlement reports at the end of the year. The customs authorities would only base on the actual norms of enterprises used to produce a product unit as a basis for calculating and liquidating contracts for enterprises. Enterprises need to set norms of actual use.

Answering problems of enterprises on bar codes issued by foreign countries and posted on exported goods, Mr.Nguyen Thanh Long explained that based on the Article 15 Decision No. 15/2006/QĐ-BKHCN dated 23/8/2006 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, organizations and enterprises operating in the territory of Vietnam want to use foreign codes (including UCC codes of US and Canada) to print on their own products for the purpose of exportation only, granted by a competent authority of the foreign country or authorized by the foreign organization to use the foreign code via a letter of authorization, contract or other forms of authorization. After being granted or authorized to use foreign codes, the applying organizations shall have to notify in writing the use of foreign codes with the General Department of Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control, enclosed with copies of their license, letter of authorizations, use contract, or other evidence of authorization.

In answer to questions about the import tax exemption for the case of outsourcing other parts for processing in the production process, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, deputy head of division, in charge of import-export duty division, responded that it is based on the regulations at Clause 7, Article 16 of the Law on Export and Import Tax, "Raw materials, supplies and components imported for the production of export goods" shall be entitled to tax exemption. Article 12 of the Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP of the Government dated 1/9/2016 does not stipulate for cases where enterprises import raw materials and supplies in the form of export production, then hiring for processing a few of steps before receiving products for export, or for continuing production for import. The HCM City Customs Department recognized difficulties and shortcomings in the above cases and reported to the General Department of Vietnam Customs to consider the proposal of import tax exemption for local businesses.

However, according to Official Letter No. 1738 / TXNK-CST dated 11/4/2018 and Document No. 2405 / TXNK-CST dated 14/5/2018 of the Import-Export Duty Department - General Department of Vietnam Customs, for cases where enterprises import raw materials and supplies in the form for export production, but assign other units (not subsidiary branches) to complete the whole process, or process a number of stages then take back the products for export, or for cases of producing goods for export, it did not satisfy the determination of duty-free goods-establishments as defined in Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP, thus it did not receive import tax exemption for imported goods for processing. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is consulting with the Government to amend and supplement Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP. The opinion of the HCM City Customs Department when consulting export production – goods outsourcing is still subject to tax exemption.

Additionally, New Hana Company (Ho Chi Minh City Hi-Tech Park) proposed that due to producing export goods on the spot, delivering the goods, issuing invoices a lot, would they add up invoices for weekly issuance or not? Responding to that problem, the HCM City Customs Department said that there are no regulations on merging declarations in cases where enterprises carry out import and export on the spot several times.

Enterprises are satisfied and highly appreciative

More than 30 questions from enterprises were satisfactorily answered by the HCM City Customs Department at the conference, the enterprises were pleased and highly appreciative. Mr. Kim Heung Soo, President of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ho Chi Minh City (Kocham), thanked the Director and the Board of Directors of the HCM City Customs Department for organizing this meaningful conference to support businesses.

According to Mr. Kim Heung Soo, currently, there are 5,600 South Korean enterprises that have invested $US 57.7 billion in Vietnam, ranked first place among the countries investing in Vietnam. South Korean companies contributed 35% of Vietnam’s export turnover. This result has been received and greatly supported by the Customs sector in general and the HCM City Customs Department. This conference demonstrated the support through the guidance of HCM City Customs Department by answering a lot of questions for Korean enterprises. Customs sector has also used a lot of IT applications in the customs procedures, and at the time proposed to modify many inadequacies of policies ... in order to facilitate businesses.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Lim Jae Hoon - South Korean Consul General in HCM City said that there are nearly 2,900 Korean companies investing in the South in many areas. At the same time, about 1,400 Korean enterprises are investing in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces and have received support from state management authorities, including the HCMC Customs Department. Despite enterprises’ understanding and implementing policies well, there were still a number of Korean companies that have limited knowledge regarding administrative procedures, causing difficulties for the implementation of investment in Vietnam. But with this dialogue, the enterprises would be guided by the answers to their problems in order to understand and comply with the regulations.

Committed to facilitating businesses, Director General Dinh Ngoc Thang said, after this conference, the difficult obstacles which were answered would be gathered into documents and sent to the association for dissemination to enterprises. The content for businesses that need in-depth consulting, the enterprises could contact HCM City Customs Department for specific guidance. For the new documents, the HCM City Customs Department would continue to coordinate with the association to disseminate to enterprises to comply with the regulations.

"HCM City Customs Department would set up a direct support unit to the leaders of the Department, to help enterprises when problems arise in the process of implementing procedures and be able to send mail for receiving specific guidance. Customs authorities wanted to receive information from enterprises in the fastest way in order to give instructions in time for businesses. Avoiding the case where enterprises send mail for guidance taking a lot of time, "- Mr. Thang added.

With the commitments from Director General Dinh Ngoc Thang, Korean companies were very sympathetic.