Obstacles in tax exemption for declarations registered before September 1, 2016

The Quang Ngai Customs officer inspects the imported and exported goods Photo: Manh Hung

In order to implement Clause 2, Article 21 of the Law on Import and Export Duty No.107/2016/QH13, the Ministry of Finance has guided in Section XII of Dispatch No. 12166/BTC-TCHQ dated August 31, 2016 on the implementation of Law on import and export duty and the instruction of the General Department of Vietnam Customs under Dispatch No. 8621/TCHQ-TXNK dated September 8, 2016 on handling tax debt.

Accordingly, the declarations of raw materials which are imported for manufacture of exports and goods temporarily imported registered before September 1, 2016 in the grace period, Customs has to inform taxpayers who actively declared the changing purpose on the new declaration on the amount of goods and the respective tax payment which is proposed for tax exemption, and handle the related procedures to exempt tax for the enterprises. However, during implementation of this guideline will meet obstacles as follow:

Firstly, as per regulations under Circular 172/2010/TT-BTC, this case is not subject to exemption of fees for Customs procedures. Hence, does Customs have to collect the fees for Customs procedures or not? If Customs must collect fees, it will have shortcomings, the enterprise will react because they have to pay fees twice for 1 shipment.

Secondly, the new declarations on the VNACCS/VCIS will not accept the initial exchange rate and the tax rate of the old declarations as per guidelines under Dispatch 862/TCHQ-TXNK, the System will automatically upgrade and calculate according to the current exchange rate and tax rate at the time of registering the new declarations, how will it be implemented?

Thirdly, when an enterprise registers the new declaration which will be classified into the Green Channel, Yellow Channel and Red Channel, how is the physical inspection and physical examination implemented? In the case of goods which are not in the status quo at the import time because they are processed and manufactured, the inspection will not be the same as the initial declaration. With the huge amount of the declarations, it will take a long time to inspect and Customs forces cannot arrange the people to carry out.

Answering the contents on the implementation import and export duties VCN- On October 26, 2016, at the Teleconference of training the Law on import and export duties ...

In localities, there are a number of enterprises that issued the Dispatch to reflect and propose to continue to be monitor the procedures, non-duty collection and drawback as per regulations which took effect before September 1,2016 without declaring the declarations of changing purpose as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs. And if tax exemption is implemented, the procedures will be carried out easier. The exemption can be implemented directly on the old declarations without opening a new declaration for changing the purpose as per the current instruction, it takes too long and resources to implement. On this problem the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs need to have the guidelines in line with the practical situation and in a timely way for enterprises and the local Customs to implement.