The Prime Minister has freshly approved a proposal on considering and applying a pre-investment licensing customs priority mechanism to labor-intensive, capital-intensive enterprises even when they remain under construction.

Production in Vietnam Hansol Electronics Ltd. Co. Photo: baoveplus.com

The Ministry of Finance will revise and supplement Circular No.86/2013/TT-BCT dated June 27, 2013 in line with the PM’s instruction. The Ministry is allowed to consider the application of the principle to eligible companies during the time when the Circular has yet to be amended.

Together with approving that proposal, the PM agreed to grant the customs priority mechanism to the Vietnam Samsung Electro-Mechanics Limited Company and the Vietnam Hansol Electronics Limited Company. The PM assigned the Finance Ministry to instruct these companies to undertake necessary procedures.

The Vietnam Samsung Electro-Mechanics project has a total investment capital of 1.2 billion USD. It started in September, 2013, and is scheduled to become operational officially in January, 2015 at the Yen Binh I Industrial Park. It was designed to serve the Samsung Thai Nguyen High-tech Complex (SEVT) – where such products as mobile phones, smart phones and tablets will be produced.

The Vietnam Hansol Electronics Ltd. Co, is an affiliate of the Samsung group. The Vietnam Hansol Electronics project, costing around 150 million USD, was commenced in December, 2013 and is to complete its investment phase within 10 months.

Under the current regulations on the application of the customs priority mechanism, these companies have yet to meet the condition for the operation duration which requires them to have been operating at least two years, said the Finance Ministry.

However, to realise the efforts to streamline administrative procedures while offering incentives to investors employing a large number of workers and having a big amount of capital, and to take into account these companies’ commitments as well as the global prestige of the Samsung group, the Finance Ministry’s proposal received the nod from the Prime Minister.

The customs priority programme for enterprises was piloted in 2011 and officially ran from 2013 in accordance with the Finance Ministry’s Circular 86/2013/TT-BTC.

Under the Circular, enterprises benefiting from the scheme will enjoy simpler paperwork involved, such as fewer company documents, inspections; undertaking tax refund before inspection; having customs procedures cleared any time in a day/ seven days a week; making customs declaration once for multiple exports and imports.

In particular, when Vietnam signs an Agreement on Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) with other countries, the benefiting enterprises will also enjoy preferential treatments in these countries.

Apart from the two enterprises of Samsung, 24 out of the 50,000 import-export companies nationwide have so far been entitled to the customs priority programme.

Source: VNA