VietNamNet Bridge – Nissan Vietnam has been told to re-export the sets of car parts it imported in 2009-2012 or pay the import tax for the sets of car parts as for complete built units (CBU).

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has released a document showing the measures it would take to deal with the car part imports by Nissan Vietnam in 2009-2012.

MOF requested Nissan Vietnam to be cooperative and export all the consignments of car parts it imported in the period from 2009 to 2012 which not have been, or have been assembled.

As for the consignments of car parts, which have been assembled and sold in the market as CBUs, and therefore, cannot be re-exported, will have to go through the examination.

The competent agencies will check to find out if VMC, which assembles cars for Nissan Vietnam, can meet the requirements set up by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) on automobile manufacturers and assemblers.

The agencies will also examine the separation of the sets of car parts Nissan Vietnam imported to find out if the sets of car parts are separated enough as stipulated in the Decision No. 05/2005 by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Besides, they will also check the documents, invoices and books relating to the car part transfer and the assembling of Nissan brand cars at VMC.

For the time being, MOF agrees that the coercive method of stopping Nissan’s customs procedures is not applied.

However, in order to enjoy the “mechanism,” Nissan Vietnam has to commit to cooperate with customs agencies to settle the tax arrears worth VND357 billion that the Hanoi Customs Agency imposes on Nissan’s car part imports. The tax arrears must be guaranteed by credit institutions in accordance with the current laws.

As for the new consignments of imports, Nissan Vietnam will have to pay tax before getting the customs clearance, or get guaranteed by credit institutions.

The trouble with Nissan began when customs agencies discovered that 1,377 sets of car parts was imported by Nissan Vietnam at the time when it still had not built a car assembling factory, meaning that it was not an automobile manufacturer to be able to enjoy the preferential tax rates on import car parts

Therefore, the customs agencies decided to collect VND500 billion in tax arrears for the consignments of imports.

Nissan Vietnam, in an effort to minimize the tax arrears it had to pay, has re-exported 228 sets of car parts, while telling the suppliers to stop the deliveries for the next orders.

As such, after a lot of working sessions with MOIT and MOF on the tax arrears, the possibility of Nissan escaping from the hundreds-billions-of-dong tax arrears has been opened.

Experts believe that VMC, which has experiences after many years of assembling cars for BMW, Mazda and Mekong, is absolutely capable to meet the requirements set by MOIT.

The most important thing Nissan expects is the conclusion by the Ministry of Science and Technology that the sets of car parts the enterprise imported in 2009-2012 could meet the requirements in terms of separation.

TBKTVN