Revised Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC: New points for predetermination of codes and change of use purposes

	Revised Circular 38 specifies the responsibilities of the concerned parties in the supervision of goods
	Revising Circular 38: Strict control of declaration cancellation and delivery of goods for preservation
	Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC: Many new points on channel classification and additional declaration

Verification of goods on Vilas mobile inspection division at Customs Branch of Inspections No.6 (under the Customs Inspection Department). Photo: H. Nu.

Additional records for pre-determination of commodity codes

The dossiers of predetermination of commodity codes are currently prescribed in Clause 1, Article 7 of Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC including: Proposal form for predetermination of commodity codes, samples of exports and imports. In case where there are no samples, organizations and individuals shall supply technical documents on the goods.

This provision is inadequate in practice, because current regulations do not require technical documents in the process of predetermination of commodity codes. However, the classification and predetermination of commodity codes must be based on technical documentation. As a result, when the Customs office requests enterprises to supplement the technical documents, it leads to the prolongation of the time. In addition, the current regulations do not specify the receipt and handling of samples of goods for identification; as well as not guiding cases awaiting for the handling results of State management agencies as prescribed in Clause 11, Article 1 of Decree No. 59/2018 / ND-CP.

Therefore, the Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC shall supplement the regulations as follows: Application form specifying the code in advance; technical documents requested by organizations or individuals for identification of goods codes; samples of goods to be exported and imported (if any). Customs offices will receive and process samples of exported and imported goods according to Article 10 of Circular No. 14/2015 / TT-BTC.

The issue of checking the application of predefined codes is also amended and supplemented in the Circular to overcome current shortcomings. Clause 5 of Article 27, Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC stipulates that if exported or imported goods do not conform with the notice on the results of identification of codes, Customs officers shall conduct the inspections and identification of codes, origin and Customs value according to the provisions of this Circular and report to the General Department of Vietnam Customs in writing on the cancellation of the performance of the notice of predetermined results. However, such a provision contradicts Point b, Clause 6, Article 24 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP, which states that the written notice of predetermined results shall not apply if the dossiers of actual exports and imports are different from the sample of goods or prescriptive dossiers.

Therefore, the Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC does not stipulate the reporting to the General Department of Vietnam Customs in writing of the performance of the notice of predetermined results in accordance with the regulations at Clause 6, Article 24 of Decree No. 08/2015 / TT-BTC. Apart from the above-said Circular, the provisions related to cases awaiting for the handling results of State management agencies are also added.

Regarding the Customs dossiers when carrying out Customs procedures, Article 16 of Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC stipulates common Customs dossiers for imported and exported goods without specifying the dossier for each case such as imported goods being humanitarian aid or non-refundable aid; imported goods for non-refundable ODA projects of Vietnam for foreign countries; exported goods for the implementation of ODA projects in Vietnam for foreign countries. Also, it does not fully regulate Customs dossiers for duty-free exported and imported goods; documents for tax reduction in Customs clearance, tax exemption documents in Customs clearance. To clarify in detail, the Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC amending and supplementing Article 16 also clarifies the dossiers to be submitted by the Customs declarants for each case of exported or imported goods which are not subject to tax; goods which are exempt from export and import tax; and cases of tax reduction.

Customs dossiers are also supplemented in the Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC to minimize the customs dossiers to be submitted to Customs offices. Documents of enterprises must be kept in service of the inspection and examination by the Customs office. Accordingly, specific details of documents must be kept related to the determination of codes, tax rates, values, tax exemption, tax reduction, tax refund, debt remission, tax payment to identify the code in advance, predetermine the value, other documents related to imported and exported goods according to Decree 125/2017 / ND-CP.

More instructions when changing the purpose of use

For declaration of change of use purposes, the current tax policy only has provisions on re-export or transfer for tax-exempt subjects. Accordingly, the transferors shall carry out the Customs procedures on the new declaration form. It also does not stipulate responsibility for the Customs office in the case where the transferee is subject to tax exemption to notify the list of tax exemption. It does not stipulate the liability of the transferee subject to tax exemption to notify the list of exemptions.

Therefore, in Circular 38 amending and supplementing the regulations on declaration of change of use purposes in the following direction: For cases of transfer to taxpayers subject to tax and duty exemption, the customs declarants are recipients of transfer.

Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC: Many new regulations on management of processed goods and export production VCN- Regarding the Customs management of processed goods, export production and export processing enterprises, the Circular amending ...

In the case where the transferee must notify the list of tax exemption, the Customs office shall deduct the transferred goods on the tax exemption list. The transferor shall have to notify the Customs office which has received the notification of the exemption list of the transfer of goods.