On April 7, 05 business associations including: Vietnam Shippers Association (VNSC); Vietnam Logistics Service Business Association (VSA); Vietnam Association of Shipping Agents, Brokers and Services (VISABA); The Vietnam Shipowners Association (VSA) and the Vietnam Inland Water Transport Association have sent a petition to the President of the National Assembly to consider not collecting fees for using the seaport border gate area for goods. transportation by inland waterway.
In this document, the Associations pointed out the inadequacies that Hai Phong (from 2017 to now) and Ho Chi Minh City (from April 1, 2022 to present) collect fees for the use of facilities and convenient services. Public utilities in the seaport border gate area (the fee for using the seaport infrastructure) are not the right subjects for goods transported by inland waterway means, because the goods are transported by road transport. Inland waterways do not use local infrastructure connected to seaports.
The inland waterway transport business community has made many reports to the two cities mentioned above, and at the same time sent reports to the Deputy Prime Minister and relevant ministries, branches, and National Assembly deputies. The Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly has also sent documents to the People’s Council, People’s Committee of Hai Phong City and Ho Chi Minh City.
Despite receiving documents from associations, opinions from ministries and branches, the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly and the direction of the Prime Minister, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City still continue to collect Charges are not to the right subjects, there is no written response to associations, no dialogue is held, and inadequacies are clarified when charging the wrong objects for goods transported by inland waterways.
Before that, right from the beginning of March 2022, VASEP and 6 other industry associations including: Food Industry Association of Transparency (AFT), Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (AFP) LEFASO), Vietnam Dairy Association (VDA), Handicraft and Woodworking Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA) and Vietnam Plastics Association (VPA) have submitted petitions to the Government Office, the Advisory Council. Administrative Procedure Reform and the People’s Council and People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City proposed not to collect fees for the use of infrastructure works, public utility works in the area. border gate and seaport areas in the city. Ho Chi Minh City according to Resolution No. 10/2020/NQ-HDND.
According to the associations, it is not appropriate to collect this fee from April 1, 2022. The applied fee is not fair and appropriate, creating more burden on administrative procedures and increasing the time to carry out administrative procedures, and bottlenecks in implementation.
Moreover, the use of the collected budget has not been open and transparent, leading to the “charge overlapping” for the purpose of infrastructure construction and development, and businesses have to pay fees twice for the projects. export shipments must use imported raw materials.
In order to ensure compliance with the Government’s orientation on cutting administrative procedures, reducing costs for businesses and supporting businesses to overcome the economic crisis, increase their competitiveness in the difficult context of the Covid-19 epidemic. 19, 07 Associations have proposed the Government, the Administrative Procedures Advisory Council to consult with the People’s Council and the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City for consideration has not yet implemented the collection of the above fees until the end of December 31, 2022. At the same time, the fee rates will be adjusted to decrease in the direction of fairness, cut costs for businesses, do not create more burden on administrative procedures and cause congestion for the implementation of administrative procedures. The Association also suggested that City. Ho Chi Minh City needs to officially announce the start and end time, as well as the plan to use the revenue from the fees.
There is no feedback from the business community and associations, at the end of March 2022, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Phan Thi Thang signed a written notice: from April 1, Ho Chi Minh City will officially implementing port fee collection.
On April 4, 2022, the Research and Development Board of the Private Economy (Board IV), under the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, also sent a document to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh about a number of shortcomings and impacts. negative effects on business operations from the collection of fees for using seaport infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City. In which, it is recommended to stop the collection of seaport infrastructure fees in Ho Chi Minh City to create conditions for businesses and the economy to recover and develop.
In a document sent to the Prime Minister, this Board said that the regulation of the fee difference between opening declarations in Ho Chi Minh City and outside Ho Chi Minh City is not consistent with the Law on Fees and Charges and the current Customs Law. practices, creating discrimination and difficulties for businesses in neighboring provinces, causing confusion in management.
Practice shows that when businesses open declarations in Ho Chi Minh City or open declarations in neighboring provinces, they all use infrastructure works, public utility services in the seaport border gate area of Ho Chi Minh City. .HCM is the same. Even when businesses open declarations at local customs departments outside of Ho Chi Minh City, the goods will be transferred to factories and factories after landing, so the use of seaport infrastructure is even less. compared to when opening the declaration in Ho Chi Minh City.
It seems that they do not pay much attention and ignore the urgent recommendations of the business community and industry associations about this, at the press conference to provide information on the economic and social results of Ho Chi Minh City in the first quarter and The 5th meeting of the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City, term X took place on the afternoon of April 7, 2022, the Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City confirmed that the port fee collection has full legal and practical basis.
According to calculations, from Khanh Hoa to Cat Lai port (Ho Chi Minh City) there are 7 BOT toll stations. Each container. have to pay through the station 2 times going and back. Thus, the total toll fee through 1 station is 360,000 VND/cont, accordingly, 1 container of goods enterprises has now paid an additional toll fee of 2.5 million VND/cont… Thus, on average, one seafood enterprise per year. in Khanh Hoa with 3,000 containers. For export/year, he had to pay an additional 7.5 billion VND/year for the BOT station fee. If burdened with this new fee, a medium-sized seafood enterprise outside the city. Ho Chi Minh City will have to pay an additional 5.5 billion VND/year. Meanwhile, currently, seaports are also collecting a lot of fees related to the port’s infrastructure, such as wharf fees, storage fees, storage fees, electric plug fees, container lifting, etc. increasing the cost burden of enterprises, reducing the competitiveness of enterprises in the context that enterprises are currently facing many difficulties due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.
According to Vasep
