Hanoi-Vietnam: New regulations on fees for certification of eligibility for importing scrap

These are the regulations prescribed by Circular 62/2017/TT-BTC issued by the Vietnam Ministry of Finance on June 19, 2017, which on fees, collection, payment, management, and use of fees for certification of eligibility of environmental protection for the importing scrap for production in Vietnam.

The Circular specifies that the fee payers are organizations and individuals requesting the competent authority to issue or re-issue the certificate of eligibility of environmental protection for importing scrap for production in Vietnam as guided by Circular 41/2015/TT-BTNMT dated September 9, 2015 of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment on the environmental protection in importing scrap for production in Vietnam and any amendment, supplement, or replacement (if any).

Fee payers are required to pay the fee within 10 working days from the date of submitting the application for issuance or re-issuance of the certificate. Fees may be paid directly to the fee collector or into accounts of fee collectors containing fees waiting to be submitted to the state budget at the State Treasury.

Regarding the fee collector, the Pollution Control Department under the General Department of Environment (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) and the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment in provinces and municipalities collect fees as stipulated by this Circular.

The fee for the issuance and reissuance of a certificate for organizations or individuals importing scrap with entrustment with storage yards for imported scrap in Vietnam is 20 million VND per application; without storage yards, the fee is 12 million VND per application.

For organizations or individuals directly using imported scrap as production materials, the fee for issuing a new certificate (issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) can be found in the fee schedule attached to this Circular.

For certificates issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (initial issuance or re-issuance), the fee rates are as follows:

Regarding declaration and payment of fees, the Circular stipulates that no later than the 5th of each month, the fee collector must deposit the fees collected from the previous month into its accounts containing fees waiting to be submitted to the state budget at the State Treasury.

Additionally, in terms of fee management and use, the fee collector is allowed to retain 90% of the total fees collected to cover the costs of providing services, collecting fees, and contributing 10% to the state budget, except as specified in Clause 2, Article 5 of this Circular.

The retained amount is managed and used under the provisions of Article 5 of Decree 120/2016/ND-CP of the Government of Vietnam. This includes various expenses associated with task performance, service provision, and fee collection, such as costs for inspection at the facility, costs for obtaining feedback from members of the inspection team, environmental monitoring costs, and sample analysis costs for the evaluation for certification with the expenditure levels regulated by Circular 02/2017/TT-BTC of the Vietnam Ministry of Finance.

In case the fee collector being a state agency does not fall under the case of using the fee revenue according to Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree 120/2016/ND-CP dated August 23, 2016, it must remit 100% of the collected fees to the state budget. The funds to cover service provision and fee collection activities will be allocated from the state budget according to the expenditures and norms of the state budget as stipulated by law.

Source: Financial Magazine

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE