VietNamNet Bridge – Import and export tariff rules can be interpreted in many different ways, putting pressure on businesses, many companies have complained.

Pham Thi Loan, chair of Viet A Group, said the scheme was “labyrinthine” and unclear.

“We are not sure how much tax to impose on our imports, because the tariff is not clear enough,” she said. “In many cases, our tax declarations were not accepted by customs agencies. They said imports must be taxed higher.”

Businesses and customs agencies cannot agree on the tax codes of the import products, which has led to confusion.

Viet A mostly imports transformers and other electrical equipments which cannot be made domestically. In the past, the equipment had the same tax code and the same tax rate. But now, the products have different tax codes and rates.

“We are afraid that our tax declarations are wrong, and we could be accused of fraud,” she said.

An optical fiber junction box, for example, has the import tax rate of zero percent. However, customs agencies decided that the product was subject to the 20 percent tax rate. This tax gap of 20 percent is big enough to push businesses against the wall, Loan said.

A businessman, who took part in a meeting on October 30 between businesses and watchdog agencies on customs and tax procedures, complained that legal documents related to import-export management were too numerous.

“Businesses’ operations are not only covered by official legal documents, but also the circulars and dispatches released by branches and agencies,” he said.

The director of a private company in Hanoi, who declined to be named, told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting that ministries and watchdog agencies at different levels spend too much time on compiling legal documents which are “unnecessary, overlapping, unclear and unfeasible”.

“The same issues are mentioned in many different documents, while some other issues cannot be found in any document,” he said. “The unreasonable regulations cause legitimate businesses to feel upset, but lend a hand to illegitimate ones to commit fraud.”

Nguyen Hong Khoai, deputy general director of the Hanoi Business Development Consultancy Company, said he cannot understand why businesses still have to sign and stamp so many papers, because e-declarations and digital signatures are available in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan admitted that the problems exist, and that businesses will continue to encounter difficulties until the regulations are amended.

Tuan recently said the ministry had asked the government to add an import-export tariff amendment to the 2015 legislative program.

Mai Thanh