Consider management measures of imported IT products on the prohibited list

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According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the import of used IT products for scientific research and production testing is an essential need for all sectors, because IT has become one of the important parts of the economy. Currently, according to Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP, the import of goods on the list of prohibited imports (including used IT products) for scientific research is considered and decided by the Prime Minister. However, up to now, there is no document detailing the order, procedures and dossiers for this activity. It has caused difficulties for enterprises in applying and complying with the policies and laws of the State, affecting the production activities of many sectors and fields.

Therefore, the development of the Prime Minister's Decision stipulating the case of importing goods under the list of used IT products for scientific research and processing activities for foreign traders was necessary.

Accordingly, the draft Decision regulates the conditions, dossiers, order and procedures for considering and permitting the import of goods under the list of used IT products banned from import in order to serve the purpose of scientific research and processing activities for foreign traders.

The importation must meet the principles, including imported goods must ensure relevant regulations on safety, quality, standards and national technical standards; do not allow the import of used goods that were announced to eliminate because of backwardness, poor quality, causing environmental pollution by other countries; only allowed to import goods to directly serve production activities of enterprises in Vietnam.

At the same time, the draft stipulated dossiers, order and procedures for granting import license of goods that are in the list of used IT products banned from import for scientific research; conditions and regulations for processing and repairing goods under the list of used IT products banned from import for foreign traders; documents, order and procedures to allow to goods processing and repair under the list of used IT products banned from import for foreign traders.

Regarding the regulations in the draft, the Ministry of Finance said that for the content of importing for scientific research purposes, it was necessary to specify clearly the handling measures for imported goods after completing scientific research. In particular, if goods were temporarily imported for scientific research, they must be re-exported or destroyed. The procedures for re-export or destruction of goods must comply with relevant legal documents; at the same time, supplement regulations on the responsibilities of authorities in monitoring the re-export and destruction of goods after completing the scientific research.

On the other hand, to ensure the management of the import of used IT products for using correctly and at the appropriate time, it was necessary to specify clearly in the draft Decision about time of re-export and competent authorities for determining re-exported goods were correct.

“The reason was that many cases of machinery and equipment have to be disassembled for scientific research, so that it was not the same as temporary import goods. Many cases of temporary import were machinery and complete equipment but it was components and spare parts when re-exported and the customs authorities had no basis to determine that the re-exported goods were suitable for the original temporarily imported goods," the document by the Ministry of Finance stated.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance also proposed to supplement regulations on handling violations for cases of arbitrarily transferring goods for domestic consumption, not re-exporting goods that were imported before.

For the import issues of processing activities, the Ministry of Finance also proposed the Drafting Committee to consider a number of papers such as: documents by environmental management agencies approving projects to implement processing activities under the provisions of the law on environmental protection as stated in the application file for permission.

The Drafting Committee should consider clarifying the request of providing documents of the environmental management agency to approve the project of processing activities because in fact many enterprises carry out processing activities that do not directly handle scrap materials. They have to sign contracts with qualified companies in order to process scrap.