Space to increase revenue from Nghi Son Seaport: Thanh Hoa Customs

	Thanh Hoa Customs promotes import and export growth
	Thanh Hoa Customs ranked first place in the DDCI index in 2022

Revenue from crude oil accounts for 80%

According to Thanh Hoa Customs Department, the state revenue from imported and exported goods in the area still depends on imported raw materials for production of projects in Nghi Son economic zone, especially the revenue from imported crude oil of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex (accounting for more than 80% of total annual budget revenue).

In 2023, Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant will undergo major maintenance under in Augustwithin 50-55 days, during this time, the plant will suspend operation and not import crude oil. Thanh Hoa Customs Department expects the revenue to decrease from VND1,520 billion to VND2,280 billion, greatly affecting the reaching of revenue target of the department. Moreover, in 2023, there are no new investment projects in the area and mainly investment in project expansion, causing the plunge in revenue from imported machinery and equipment to create fixed assets year-on-year.

The import and export turnover across Thanh Hoa Customs Department has reflected difficulties in the first half of the year. The total trade in goods across the department reached US$6.34 billion, meeting 85% year-on-year, including US$ 2.06 billion of export turnover, reaching 89% compared with the year ago. The import and export turnover of wood and wooden products decreased by 7% compared with the same period of the previousyear due to the sharp decrease in the turnover of industrial plywood exported to the US market; stone and stone products down 57% due to the plunge in turnover of paving stone products exported to EU markets. Besides, the taxable turnover of limestone products slightly reduced by 2% and taxable turnover of clinker exports fell76%.

The import turnover reached US$ 4.28 billion, meeting 84% year-on-year. The import turnover of major commodities dropped sharply, except for imported coalup 90% due to the volume of coal imported for production by Nghi Son 2 Thermal Power Plant.Specifically, crude oil import turnover of Nghi Son Refining and Petrochemical Project reached US$2.94 billion, accounting for 82% of import turnover, down 16% year-on-year due to the sharp drop in the average price of imported crude oil. The import turnover of machinery and equipment fell 69% over the same period last year because there are no new projects in the year.

Iron and steel scrap turnover reached US$259 million, meeting 80% year-on-year due to the decline in the price of imported iron and steel scrap. The turnover of the remaining imported items all went down 18-60%, which also contributed to a sharp decrease in total trade in goods compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the first six months of the year, the department earned VND 8,912 billion of revenue, meeting 87% year-on-year, 66% of the target. According to the department, the revenue mainly results from the imports worth VND8,751 billion, accounting for 98.2% of the total revenue, of which the revenue from imported crude oil accounts the largest amount.

As of the end of June, there were 19 shipments of imported crude oil were cleared. The volume of imported crude oil was 5.19 million tons or 35.7 million barrels, reaching 104.7% year-on-year;the import turnover dropped 15.54% year-on-year to US$ 2.94 billion; the revenue from other imports reached VND1,594 billion, accounting for 17.9% of the total revenue.

The department said that the revenue from exports only accounts for a small proportion of the total revenue, reaching VND161.42 billion, accounting for 1.8%.

Attracting revenue from strengths

Sharing difficulties with enterprises at the recent Customs-Business Dialogue Conference, Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Customs Department Le Xuan Cuong said that the department has actively removed problems related to Customs procedures; facilitated import and export activities in the area; instructed enterprises to grasp, understand and comply with new customs, and limit errors that affect customs clearance process, production of enterprises, and help the Customs increase revenue.

The revenue from import and export activities of Thanh Hoa Customs Department will increase when a series of policies to promote the potential and advantages of Nghi Son Seaport. The Ministry of Finance has consulted opinions on the draft Decree guiding the implementation of the policy of increasing revenue from import and export activities across Nghi Son Seaport. The Government's decree is developed to implement Resolution No.37/2021/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Thanh Hoa province.

The draft stipulates the determination of revenue from export and import activities across Nghi Son seaport and value added tax amount of goods imported across the seaport to invest in forming fixed assets or for the production of export goods for export subject to VAT refund.

In the near future, Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee will hold a conference to call on investors, import and export enterprises to carry out import and export procedures at the seaport. This activity aims to implement guidelines and policies of the Central Government and Thanh Hoa province, and attract investors and import-export, thereby, solving and removing difficulties and obstacles, creating conditions for enterprises to invest, produce, trade, transport and exploit effectively at Nghi Son seaport; strengthen cooperation relations between Thanh Hoa province and enterprises and shipping lines.