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Goods are imported and exported through Cat Lai Port. Photo: T.H

As recorded by the reporter at some Customs units under Ho Chi Minh Customs Department, after the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) guiding the implementation of Official Letter 1237/TCHQ-TXNK on additional fees to Customs value, although enterprises are still confused about the implementation, with the instruction from the Customs, the declaration of additional fees into Customs valuation has been smoothly implemented.

According to the Sai Gon Port Customs Branch Zone 1, implementing the instruction of the GDVC, Customs officers of Import Cargo Customs Procedures Team have instructed enterprises to declare freight cost and costs related to the goods transport to the first entry border gate if these fees are subject to additions stipulated in Point g, Clause 13 Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC and meet conditions prescribed in Clause 1 Article 13 Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC.

According to enterprises, CIC/EIS charges have only arisen when enterprises import goods from Southeast Asian countries and not all shipping lines have this charge. The large shipping lines with a huge volume of imported and exported goods in balanced countries, the container imbalance does not incur, thereby these charges do not arise.

If this charge is related to the freight, it is not subject to VAT the same as shipping cost (VAT=0%). But in fact, enterprises said that this charge is subject to a VAT rate of 10%. If an enterprise has paid this tax, the Customs should instruct it not to add this charge to dutiable value.

For the Cleaning container fee, an enterprise determines the amount of fee before making Customs declaration and D/O fee. If these fees are related to the freight, they must not be subject to VAT the same as shipping cost. If an enterprise is subject to a VAT rate of 10%, the enterprise will not add this fee to dutiable value.

For the Clearing Container fee, enterprises suggested that provisions need to specify this fee if these fees are included in the purchase price, including cost and fee, they will be not added to Customs value. In which, for the Clearing Container fee, if they have not had instruction to specify a VAT rate of 0% for this fee, this fee will not be collected and implemented post-clearance audit as per provisions in the Official Letter 1237/TCHQ-TXNK.

Notably, according to Hiep Phuoc Port Customs Branch, when carrying out Customs procedures, some enterprises propose not to add D/O fee to dutiable value, because it is not related to shipping cost and is applied to the VAT rate of 10%.

According to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, over the past time, many enterprises are still confused in declaring the transaction value, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has instructed and responded to many questions from enterprises. Regarding additional fees to dutiable value, enterprises say that according to provisions of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC dated 25th March 2015 of the Ministry of Finance, charges incurred at the border gate of Vietnam before Customs clearance related to the Local charges, the enterprises pay these charges for shipping lines.

T.H.C charge is not the additional charge to dutiable value, but CIC (Container imbalance charge) which is paid by enterprises to the shipping lines, must be added to dutiable value. These two charges arise at the same time and are paid together by enterprises. Whether or not enterprises continue to add the C.I.C to the dutiable value, because some shipping lines collect this charge but some do not.

In addition, the General Department of Vietnam Customs is considering the proposals from some enterprises that the General Department of Vietnam Customs should not to collect and implement post- clearance audit for some charges.

Responding this obstacle, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Deputy Head in charge of Import and Export Division, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department guides that the above charges only shall be added to transaction value when these charges are only directly paid by importer. If the importers buy the goods with CIF and do not pay any other costs such as CIC or THC, the Customs will not add these charges to the transaction value.