Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration Le Do Muoi assigned port authorities and maritime branches to check shipping companies’ shipping rates and surcharges to avoid shipping companies violating competition laws.
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Strengthen inspection and examination of shipping companies’ activities
At the meeting on surcharges in addition to the price of import-export container shipping services by sea held by the Vietnam Maritime Administration on the afternoon of March 12, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) ) believes that currently, Vietnamese shippers are small and retail shippers, while shipping lines that are transporting Vietnam’s import and export goods are all large shipping lines. This can create inequality in scale and in negotiating power.
Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) spoke at the meeting.
Recently, the situation of shipping lines increasing surcharges has caused a lot of frustration for Vietnamese shippers. Shippers become the ones most affected by the increase in these costs. When the Ministry of Transport issued Circular 39/2023 and increased the price of seaport container handling services by about 10%, many shipping lines also simultaneously increased the THC handling surcharge.
Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department informed that there was a situation where the shipping company had to run for 15 days before retroactively announcing an additional THC fee for shippers. This is unreasonable and puts the shipper in a difficult position, because if they do not pay the fee, they will not be able to get the goods.
According to Mr. Hai, currently, Vietnam has a different position with import and export activities of goods. Vietnam is also where shipping lines are generating large sources of revenue.
Therefore, leaders of the Import-Export Department request shipping lines to change their perspective and respect the Vietnamese market, carefully considering business activities in Vietnam.
Associations also need to proactively work with shipping lines. In case the parties cannot agree and agree, state management agencies will intervene.
However, Mr. Hai raised questions about whether shipping lines are competing unfairly in the Vietnamese market.
“Is there a situation where shipping lines announce a freight rate of 0 VND, but in reality they push the freight price into surcharges?”, Mr. Hai asked and said that if so, this is unfair competition. with both customers and other shipping lines.
Therefore, the leaders of the Import-Export Department proposed the need for stricter management measures and transparency in price and fee mechanisms.
Regarding this issue, Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration Le Do Muoi assigned the port authorities and maritime branches to check the freight rates of shipping lines and check surcharges, avoiding the situation that shipping lines violating competition laws, ensuring compliance with international conventions and Vietnamese law. In particular, strengthen inspection and examination of small and fragmented shipping companies.
How to manage?
Mr. Le Do Muoi, Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, informed that the Ministry of Transport has proposed that the Ministry of Finance add surcharges of shipping lines for containerized goods to the subject of price declaration in the draft Decree guiding the year’s Price Law. 2023.
Mr. Le Van Thuc, Director of Vung Tau Maritime Port Authority, informed that the situation of shipping lines increasing surcharges actually happened in early 2021. At that time, some shipping lines even increased THC fees by 20%.
Given that Vietnam’s law currently does not prohibit shipping lines from increasing surcharges and letting freight prices and surcharges follow market rules, Mr. Thuc’s opinion has a clear explanation. Leaders of Vung Tau Maritime Port Authority proposed that the Ministry of Finance review, inspect and examine relevant shipping lines to determine the nature of the problems in order to thoroughly resolve existing problems.
According to the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the Ministry of Finance is currently the agency in charge of price management. Currently, the 2023 Price Law has been issued and will take effect from July 1, 2024. Based on that, the Ministry of Finance is drafting a Decree guiding the 2023 Price Law.
At the meeting, a representative of the Price Management Department (Ministry of Finance) said that shipping lines’ surcharges relate to many fields and units. According to current regulations, surcharges in addition to the price of transportation services are not included in the list of goods priced by the State and do not have to be declared.
According to the recommendations of the associations, shipping lines need to have a report on the THC fee structure. In case these surcharges are very profitable, it is recommended that the authorities consider and apply special consumption tax collection policies.
However, a representative of the Price Management Department affirmed that currently, special consumption tax only applies to certain types of luxury goods and services to regulate production, import and social consumption. . Therefore, the associations’ recommendations need more information and basis for taxation.
From here, the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Transport to evaluate the necessity of adding surcharges to the list of goods subject to price declaration, as well as assess the conformity with the provisions of maritime law and the law. international. At the same time, evaluate the impact and seek opinions from relevant parties and research more information to levy special consumption tax.
According to Director of Vietnam Maritime Administration Le Do Muoi, the Government is looking for options to reduce logistics costs. It is unacceptable for shipping lines to increase surcharges unreasonably.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Transport will take management measures to harmonize relevant parties, as well as remove difficulties and obstacles of businesses.
In the management of maritime activities, The Vietnam Maritime Administration has implemented many solutions to support businesses, shipping lines, and shippers in the process of transporting import and export goods in Vietnam, meeting 100% of goods throughput through seaports.
The Department also directs maritime port authorities to perform a number of tasks to facilitate ships and goods entering and exiting ports, such as speeding up port entry and exit procedures and loading and unloading of goods for ships. boats transporting import and export goods, especially container goods to Europe and America; continue to reduce and simplify administrative procedures and implement them electronically; Develop plans for large ships to operate at the port to increase transport efficiency; dredging the channel to meet the standard depth for ships entering the port…
To strengthen the price management of shipping lines’ surcharges, the Ministry of Transport has sent a document to the Ministry of Finance, proposing that the Ministry of Finance add shipping line surcharges for containerized goods to the subject of price declaration. in the draft Decree guiding the Price Law in 2023.
The reason is that according to Decree No. 146/2016, shipping lines decide on surcharges and prices. In case of changes in the direction of price increase, shipping lines must post 15 days in advance before applying the new price.
Listing prices cannot control the current situation of shipping lines increasing prices and surcharges. Some types of surcharges do not reflect the true cost, for example, document surcharges, shipping lines are charging at 800,000-900,000/set.
In particular, to strengthen the management of transport activities, the Vietnam Maritime Administration is researching and proposing to add a fixed transport route management mechanism to the draft Decree amending Decree No. 58/2016 of the Government. Government on guiding the Vietnam Maritime Code on the management of maritime activities.
According to current regulations, shipping companies providing container shipping services by sea when operating in Vietnam do not have to register for fixed transport routes.
Therefore, opening routes, canceling routes, adding or withdrawing ships are all decided by the shipping company. Recently, there have been cases where shipping companies have missed or delayed flights, affecting transportation schedules and production plans of import-export enterprises.
“Registration and management of transport routes contribute to ensuring that shipping lines carry out transport according to schedules and transport plans”, Mr. Muoi informed.
According to Bao Giaothong.vn
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