Dialogue to remove problems for key petroleum traders

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Leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department exchanged and removed problems for traders. Photo: T.H

Fluctuation of imported gasoline

At the conference, Deputy Director of HCMC Customs Department Nguyen Huu Nghiep, said that the operation of domestic petroleum factories changes the amount of imported petroleum. From the beginning of 2019 until now, in addition to aviation gasoline products, at the Ho Chi Minh City border gates there were no imported gasoline shipments, while in the same period of 2018, the value of imported gasoline reached nearly US$11 million.

Nguyen Huu Nghiep said that this was the first time in many years that import procedures for gasoline were not carried out in Ho Chi Minh City. This was because that the FTA tax rate between ASEAN (form D) was higher than the Korea FTA tax rate (form VK or AK) and the distance to HCMC was further than to other locations, so traders did not carry out the import procedures through border gates managed by HCMC Customs Department.

According to Deputy Director Nguyen Huu Nghiep, most traders importing gasoline from South Korea have C/O form AK with a tax rate of 10%, so they mainly import to Van Phong - Khanh Hoa.

Regarding imported petroleum products, Nghiep said that the petroleum smuggling by sea was a problem. Smugglers carry out the illegal ship-to-ship transfer of petroleum offshore to avoid the control of authorities and evade tax.

Another problem was that the production of fake gasoline had greatly affected the import and export of petroleum, hampering the domestic market. Nghiep also noted that the key petroleum traders carrying out procedures through Ho Chi Minh City Customs always abide by the customs laws and must be careful with the violations mentioned above.

Facilitating traders

At the conference, traders said that problems were always answered immediately by the Customs. Deputy Director of Petrolimex Saigon, Duong Van Phi, said that the policy had changed a lot, but the customs authority always updated and guided traders.

Nghi Sơn oil refinery and petrochemical plant went into operation, so the amount of imported petroleum through depots decreased. However, for the whole country, petroleum trading was normal. Operation of petroleum depots takes place 24 hours per day, with the support of the customs office, petroleum import and export activities in petroleum terminals are always smooth.

Supervision of petroleum takes place 24 hours a day. Photo: T.H

Regarding problems, Duong Van Phi said there were no new problems, but problems on C/O for imported petroleum from 2015, with tax amount of over VND 60 billion should be considered and handled.

With specialized characteristics, petroleum traders proposed that in addition to removing arising problems, the Customs agency should maintain annual dialogues with enterprises, and organize separate training courses on new procedures and policies for employees of petroleum traders.

Deputy Director of Thanh Le Import-Export Trading Corporation – JSC Pham Thi Kim Thanh said that Nghi Son oil refinery and petrochemical plant came into operation, so the imported petroleum supply to the domestic market decreased.

Manager of Sai Gon Port 3 Customs Branch Le Dinh Thuat said that the Branch’s leaders always assigned the import and export petroleum management team to pay attention and remove problems for petroleum traders. The Branch is committed to creating the most favourable conditions for traders in import and export of petroleum products.

At the conference, the leader of HCMC Customs Department also informed petroleum traders on the implementation of Government Decree No. 68/2016 / ND-CP dated July 1, 2016 on the certification of petroleum depots eligible for inspection and supervision by customs offices. Up to now, only 4 of 6 enterprises are eligible. The remaining enterprises, by the end of September 30, must meet the conditions for operation as petroleum depots as prescribed.

Particularly, for the military petroleum depot, it will be difficult to share information. If it still operates commercially, it should separate the commercial activities from the system of defence activities. Commercial activities must comply with state management requirements of the customs offices according to Government's Decree No. 68.

At the conference, the leader of HCMC Customs Department also said that HCMC and the Customs agencies are now applying Industry 4.0 technology, so HCMC Customs Department is very supportive for the petroleum traders in deploying e-documents.

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In the first six months of 2019, Sai Gon Port 3 Customs Branch made customs clearance procedures for 2,353 petroleum import and export declarations. Of which, imported declarations were 580, the rest were nearly 1,800 temporary import for re-export declarations. Therefore, the tax collected by HCMC Customs Department from petroleum products was insignificant, only reaching VND 400 billion, accounting for 50% compared to the same period last year.