VietNamNet Bridge – The authorities of Ha Tinh Province, in central Vietnam, have imposed over VND4.5 billion fines (nearly $225,000) on 303 Chinese workers of a Chinese contractor at the Taiwan-invested Formosa steel project for violating Vietnamese entrance regulations.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Liem, deputy director of the Ha Tinh Provincial Police Agency, said the fine was VND15 million ($700) on each worker, who are managed by Chinese company MCC19.

"The people have violated the decree 167/2013. They work in Vietnam without permits,” Liem said, adding that they had paid the fine.

The Chinese employer had guaranteed the workers and fulfilled formalities for them to continue working in Ha Tinh.

According to a report from the Ha Tinh Economic Zone Management Board in late September, of the 3,680 Chinese working in the province, mainly for the Formosa project, only about 800 people were licensed.

Formosa Ha Tinh project has a registered investment of nearly $10 billion, and has been allocated a huge land plot of 2,025 hectares at the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province.

The first batch of steel is scheduled to be produced in May 2015 during the first operation phase of the project, which will require some 6,000 employees.

Most of the equipment and machinery imported by Formosa to serve the project is from China.

The company started importing machinery in 2010, and more than 90 percent of the imports are from Taiwan and China, according to Vung An customs. Others are from Belgium, Germany, and Australia.

Formosa Ha Tinh obtained the investment license in 2007, accompanied by a number of preferential treatments.

The company is subject to a preferential 10 percent corporate income tax for the whole life of its operation in Vietnam, while the normal tax rate is 22 percent.

In the first four years since it begins making profits, Formosa Ha Tinh will be exempted from corporate income tax, and will only have to pay 50 percent of the taxes in the next nine years.

In case of losses, it will be allowed to transfer losses to following years and deduct it from its taxable income. The company is also exempt from paying import duties for its equipment and machinery, and will be exempt from natural resource taxes.

S. Tung