General Department of Customs responds to import duties on vegetable seeds and watermelon seeds

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By Dao Le/ Huyen Trang

Recently, newspapers and media agencies had articles on the application of HS codes and calculation of import duties on vegetable seeds and watermelon seeds of all kinds.Regarding this issue, the General Department of Customs sai, on the classification codes of vegetable seeds, melon seeds, and squash seeds in the Customs Law and the Government's Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP of January 21, 2015, amended and supplemented in Decree No. 59/2018 / ND-CP of April 20, 2018, promulgation of Vietnam's List of Imports and Exports and HS Code of Export and Import Goods is under the authority of the Ministry of Finance. If there are differences in codes between the specialized management lists and Vietnam's List of Imports and Exports, classification and determination of HS codes will comply with Vietnam's List of Imports and Exports, which is to comply with the law.

Based on the List of Vietnam's Imports and Exports issued together with the Ministry of Finance's Circular 65/2017 / TT-BTC dated June 27, 2017 and referring to the detailed explanatory notes of HS List, chapter 12, melon and squash seeds are classified in heading 12.07, regardless of the purpose of use for breeding or other purposes as prescribed by law on classification and identification of goods codes.

The General Department of Customs guided this content in Official Letters No. 3726 / TCHQ-TXNK dated June 6, 2019, Official Letter No. 7952 / TXNK-PL dated August 30, 2019, and Official Letter No. 2248 / TCHQ. – TXNK dated April 8, 2020 and Official Letter No. 2743 / TCHQ-TXNK dated April 28, 2020.

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Regarding the preferential policy on duty exemption for plant varieties, on June 11, 2020, the General Department of Customs issued Official Letter No. 3864 / TCHQ-TXNK directing provincial and municipal Customs departments to guide enterprises to implement duty exemption procedures for imported vegetable seeds, melon seeds and squash seeds according to Clause 12, Article 16 of the Law on Import and Export Duties No. 107/2016 / QH13, Clause 1, Article 18, Article 30 and Article 31 of Government’s Decree 134/2016 / ND-CP dated September 1, 2016.