VnnNews – Decisions on tax policies by the Ministry of Finance are proving hard to follow for local businesses.
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The dispatch from My Tho Port’s Customs Sub-agency which required AP to pay the tax arrears for the imported equipment |
Prior to that, in January 1, 2008, AP imported refrigeration equipment to install at its newly built factory and received imports with the zero percent tariff. However, My Tho Port’s customs sub-agency later decided the equipment should have a tariff of 13 percent, or 547 million dong, instead of zero percent.
The problem was that on December 20, 2007, the Ministry of Finance released a document (Decision 106), saying that the import tariff on the refrigeration equipments increased from zero percent to 13 percent. Therefore, the customs agency decided that AP’s imports were subject to the 13 percent tax.
However, Dao argued that his imports were not subject to the 13 percent tax, because Dao made customs declarations on January 26, 2008 and got customs clearance on January 29, 2008, before the tax rate adjustment took effect
Dao said that legal documents only take effect 15 days after the documents are published on official gazette. This means that the Decision 106, which was dated January 23, 2008 must be valid on February 7, 2008, or after Dao’s imports were cleared. Therefore, the imports must enjoy the zero tariff.
However, the customs agency does not think this way. It cited the Article 4 of Decision 106, which said that the decision will be valid 15 days after it is published in the official gazette and applied to the customs declarations made from January 1, 2008. This means that if referring to the document, there will be two dates when the validity of the document begins, either January 1, 2008, or February 7, 2008.
An official from Long An provincial finance department said that in such cases, when there is something unclear, the regulation that benefit businesses should be applied. However, customs agencies do not think this way.
The Decision 123 dated December 26, 2008 on adjusting the import-export tariffs of some products also stipulated that the decision will be valid 15 days after it is published on the official gazette and applied to the customs declarations made from January 1, 2009.
As the result, local customs agencies have been ‘interpreting’ the documents in different ways. Some local customs agencies have decided to collect tax arrears, resulting in complaints from businesses.
The Ministry of Justice recently stated that the Decision 123 by the Ministry of Finance does not fit the current laws.
Dr Le Hong Son, a senior official of the Ministry of Justice, said that the Decision 123 was published on official gazette on January 18, 2009, which means that it will be valid as of February 2, 2009.
VietNamNet/LD
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