Consultation on the Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP

	Taking comments about amending contents of Decree 134
	Revision of Decree 134/2016 / ND-CP: Amendment of tax exemption regulations for specialized goods
	Guiding the tax exemption and refund for some kinds of import and export duties

The workshop. Photo: N. Linh.

At the workshop, Mr. David Anderson, the Director of Global Growth Management Project (USAID GIG) said that these were policies that had a major impact on trade. The amendment of tax policies and procedures towards transparency will facilitate enterprises as well as Customs authorities in the process.

In the framework of the workshop, representatives of the Department of Import-Export Duty, and the Tax Policy Department (under the Ministry of Finance) presented the amendments and supplements of policies, dossiers, procedures for tax refund and tax exemption.

Accordingly, the Draft Decree amended 25 Articles, supplemented 4 Articles and abolished 2 Clauses (Clause 3 of Article 4 and Point b of Clause 4 of Article 20). The important issues to be amended included: the content groups of the application of import and export tax rates, tax incentives, tax exemption and investment incentives (amending 9 articles).

For example, the deadline for payment of tax, guarantee and deposit of payable tax amounts, in Clause 2, Article 4 of Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP, stipulating the contents of letter of guarantee, monitoring and processing of letters of guarantee shall comply with the provisions of the Law on tax administration. However, the current Law on tax administration does not have this regulation but these contents are implemented in accordance with the Customs Law. According to the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Documents No. 80/2015 / QH13, the stipulation of administrative procedures in the circular is considered a prohibited activity. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government for supplementing the contents, the letter of guarantee, the submission of the letter of guarantee and the inspection, monitoring and processing of the letter of guarantee in the draft Decree in accordance with Law No. 80/2015 / QH13.

The contents of tax exemption for gifts and presents were also amended and supplemented in the draft. To clarify the tax exemption for gifts and presents, the Ministry of Finance intends to amend Clause 2, Article 8 of Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP to specify clearly the applicable tax exemption level for each import. For gifts and presents for humanitarian or charity purposes in excess of the duty-free quotas, the Ministry of Finance shall decide on tax exemption.

Tax exemption for imported goods for export processing shall be adjusted at the time of settlement reports or the expiry of the processing contracts. The imported goods for residual processing must be re-exported or transferred. In case of change of use purpose or transfer of domestic consumption, tax declaration must be made at the tax rate at the time of change of use purpose.

On the content of the dossiers, tax exemption procedures and tax refund, there are 16 articles to be amended and 4 articles to be supplemented. Specifically, amend regulations on dossiers and procedures for tax exemption for imported goods in service of scientific research and technological development;procedures for tax exemption for goods imported directly for national security and defense; procedures for exempting goods produced, processed, recycled or assembled in non-tariff areas; the basis for exemption of import tax on raw materials, supplies and components directly serving the production of information technology products and software content; exemption of import and export tax for social security, disaster recovery, epidemic diseases and other special cases.

Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, GIG project expert agreed that there should be no reduction, no refund, no retrospective tax for goods with minimum value. This is in line with standards 4.13, 4.24 of the Kyoto General Convention; to abolish the 3% tax exemption on waste and defective products according to the actual norms. Goods imported for processing contracts are exempt from import tax. Only import tax shall be calculated on the added value of processed products and raw materials for processing, export production including auxiliary materials.

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However, delegates at the workshop also commented on the content of the draft. The contents focus on time limit for tax payment; tax exemption; tax refund; tax on imports from non-tariff areas; the procedures for two types of processing, export production. For tax refund, delegates requested to supplement the case of goods imported for production and business, but used in processing and export products in the case of tax refund.