Dialogue on Customs dutypolicy with Korean enterprises

Scene of conference. Photo: H. Nu.

The conference was co-chaired by Mr. Do Hoang Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Finance and Mr. Lee Huyk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Korea to Vietnam. Other attendances were Mr. Cao Anh Tuan, Vice General Director of the General Department of Taxation, Mr. Nguyen Duong Thai, Vice General Director of the General Department of Customs, Mr. Kim Han Yong, Vice Chairman of the Korean Enterprises Association and representatives from Ministry of Finance, General Department of Customs and General Department of Taxation’s related bodies. Especially, representatives from more than 250 Korean enterprises also attended the conference.

Delivering a speech at the conference, Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan affirmed that, the Korean enterprise community is playing a leading role in the FDI bloc with many contributions and become a motivation for Vietnam’s economy.

Vietnam and Korea have gained a significant step with regards to economic relations. Korea is the largest foreign partner of Vietnam. Particularly, in May, 2005, Vietnam signed the Free Trade Agreement with Korea. In the field of duty, the two countries have signed the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income. Besides, the General Department of Customs of Vietnam and Korea exchange and work together annually to timely resolve policy difficulties for enterprises. This is a considerable chance for Korean enterprises to invest to Vietnam, Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan stressed.

Also, according to Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan, the conference was an occasion for the Ministry of Finance to exchange, and introduce the supplemented and amended Customs dutypolicy in the past year to the Korean enterprises community to understand and implement. The conference was also a chance for Korean enterprises to raise difficulties and questions relating to the Customs dutypolicy tothe Ministry of Finance, General Department of Taxation and General Department of Customs toanswer and resolve.

At the conference, the Korean Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam, Mr. Lee Hyuk informed that, the cooperation relations between two countries was established since 1995 with many fruitful achievements and Korea has become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, reflecting efforts and contributions the from two countries’ enterprises. To June 2016, the amount of invested capital from Korea to Vietnam reached $US 48.5 billion. Ambassador LeeHyuk believes that, in the near future, trade turnover between the two countries will increase to $US 70 billion by2020.

“This can be seen as the first priority of Korean enterprises. Especially in the trend of globalization for enterprises, so that the business environment, Customs duty policy isthe highest consideration for enterprises to invest”, said Ambassador Lee Hyuk.

Until now, the Ministry of Finance has organized 9 Conferences not only to informaboutregulations and policies, but to listen and resolve difficulties from enterprises. Also, difficulties from enterprises can help responsible agencies to improve their administrative policies.

Looking back overthe past year, Vietnam’s Customs dutypolicy has been supplemented and amended significantly to be suitable with the changes of the country’s economy, to be in line with the integration trend of the world and contribute to resolve difficulties for tax payers and Customs clearers. Presently, the Ministry of Finance is directing the General Department of Taxation to push up the electronic tax payment solution on a national scale, to reduce more than 10 hours in tax payment for enterprises.

However, there were still some difficulties relating to implementation of value added tax policy as well as the activity regulations for export processing enterprises, tax drawbacks etc. from Korean enterprises. Those difficulties were properly answered by the Ministry of Finance, General Department of Taxation and General Department of Customs.

“The issues and difficulties from enterprises that were properly or not properly resolved at this conference by responsible agencies should be replied by documents. This isevidence for enterprises in dealing with responsible agencies” - Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan proposed.

Moreover, aleader from the Ministry of Finance suggested that difficulties arising from enterprises should be reflected through the Chamber of Commerce and the Korean enterprises Association… as one petition then send to the Vietnam’s responsible agencies to be timely resolved.

Vice General Director of the General Department of Customs Nguyen Duong Thai: Efforts for administrative procedure reform to facilitate enterprises

In the past years, the Government,the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs havealways given priority to reform Customs administrative procedures. Customs administrative procedure reforms reflect the breakthrough in realizing the national and ASEAN’s single window mechanism. Up to 29th of August, 2016 the national single window mechanism has officially connected 10 Ministries, including: Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Defense. Apart from the Customs clearance procedure, 33 administrative procedures from 9 other Ministries have been carried out through the national single window mechanism. To the 29th of August, 2016, 175,065 administrative documents have been realized through the national single window information gate with participation from 8,944 enterprises in this field of business.

Also from September, 2016, the national single window mechanism has successfully connected with 4 ASEAN member states (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore) to exchange the certificate of origin sample D for the import-export goods from ASEAN, ready to connect with the ASEAN single window mechanism when the legal protocol for ASEAN single window mechanism officially becomes effective in 2016 and Vietnam becomesthe third country to pass this Protocol.

Up to now, Vietnam Customs has inked a cooperation agreement for export-import tax collection with 30 banks and collected 145.895 billion VND for the national budget, making up 90.51% of total budget collection from Customs. To the end of 1st September,2016the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs) has successfully organized Opening ceremoniesfor specific investigation places for export-import goods at 8 offices.