Enterprises continue to propose for seaport infrastructure fees reduction

Enterprises carry out import and export procedures at a seaport in Ho Chi Minh City

While facing difficulties due to the impact of the epidemic, businesses believe that adding infrastructure fees at this stage will make the recovery more challenging. In response to the recommendations of the business community, the Government has also given opinions to the Ho Chi Minh City for adjusting the fee in the next July.

Businesses propose to reduce the fees

The Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Dong Nai has a large number of members and businesses engaged in production and business activities in the province. The volume of export and import goods of enterprises is huge. Mr. Wo Ming Ying, President of the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Dong Nai, said that in October 2021, activities reopened, but businesses still operate in moderation because of a shortage of workers, raw materials and supply chains are disrupted. At the beginning of this year, businesses were like "sitting on a fire" because sea freight rates continued to increase, fuel costs, raw material prices all increased. Especially, with the current collection of seaport infrastructure fee in Ho Chi Minh City, businesses are really facing great difficulties.

“Enterprises’ expectation is that if considered about reducing fees, the current level of costs will increase in addition to other direct costs, making production costs become much higher, businesses really face many difficulties and problems. The enterprises hope the provincial government will suggest Ho Chi Minh City to have the further consideration", Mr. Wu wishes.

Likewise, Mr. Mizushima. Chairman of the Japanese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City also said that one of the issues that Japanese businesses are most concerned about is the collection of seaport fees. Since April 1, 2022, Ho Chi Minh City has implemented the collection of fees for the use of seaport infrastructure, especially the fee for customs clearance procedures in other localities is twice as high as when carrying out procedures in Ho Chi Minh City. This makes the transportation costs of enterprises doing customs clearance procedures in Dong Nai significantly increase.

“In Dong Nai, we have 130 members, in March this year, our Dong Nai Association sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee and the Provincial Customs Department. We know that Dong Nai Customs has also submitted comments to the General Department and central agencies, we hope to continue to receive support to soon have a solution and improve the current regulations," Mr. Mizushima said.

Remove unreasonable problems

According to businesses and business associations, the fee difference between customs declarations in Ho Chi Minh City and customs declarations in neighboring provinces is not in accordance with the Law on Customs, creating discrimination and causing difficulties for businesses in neighboring provinces. This makes businesses in these provinces tends to flow to Ho Chi Minh City for the customs declarations, causing congestion and overloading in the process of customs clearance of import and export goods at the ports of Ho Chi Minh City.

Specifically, the fee for imported and exported goods that are declared in the provinces outside the city is VND500,000 per 20ft container; VND1 million per 40ft containers and VND30,000 per ton for liquid and bulk cargoes not packed in containers. This fee is twice as high as that applied to imported and exported goods with declarations opened in Ho Chi Minh City (VND250,000 per 20ft containers; VND500,000 per 40ft containers and VND15,000 per ton for liquid goods, bulk cargo not packed in containers).

In this regard, on June 8, the Government Office issued a written notice of the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai. Accordingly, the Deputy Prime Minister proposed the City People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to consider and collect opinions of ministries and agencies, soon submitted to the City Council for consideration and adjustment in July 2022.

After having the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, the Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City has also proposed the fee for seaport infrastructure of organizations and individuals doing import and export goods in other localities to enjoy the same support fee as that of Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, it is proposed to reduce 50% of the fee for imported and exported goods transported by inland waterways to encourage enterprises to participate, contributing to reducing traffic congestion and limiting road traffic accidents.

Phan Anh