Business Briefing

Reference exchange rate

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate for the US dollar at VND 23,183/USD on July 12, up VND 13 from the previous day. With the current trading band of +/-3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is VND 23,877/USD, and the floor rate is VND 22,489/USD.

The opening-hour rates at all commercial banks remained stable. Vietcombank listed the buying rate at VND 23,180/USD and the selling rate at VND 23,490/USD, both unchanged from July 11. BIDV also kept both rates unchanged, listing at VND 23,210/USD (buying) and VND 23,490/USD (selling).

Photo: Zing

Fee and tax news: Vietnam collects taxes from Microsoft, TikTok, Netflix

Many major foreign online service providers such as Facebook, Microsoft, TikTok, and Netflix have directly registered, declared and/or paid taxes online into the Vietnamese budget. The General Department of Taxation reported that the tax revenue from cross-border goods and services through organizations in Vietnam declaring and paying on behalf of contractors reached VND 5.4 trillion (nearly USD 235 million) from 2018 until June 29. The average revenue is about VND 1.2 trillion per year, with the average revenue growth rate at 130%.

Since the portal's opening for foreign suppliers on March 21, many large foreign suppliers have registered to pay corporate income tax and value-added tax directly through the portal. Up to now, 23 foreign suppliers have registered, declared, and paid taxes to the Vietnamese state budget, the total amount of tax paid is about USD 2.4 million.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Tax said that with these measures, the tax authorities initially obtained solid results in the fight against budget revenue loss. Specifically, four commercial banks provided tax authorities with organizations and individuals with income from Google, with a total amount of money received from abroad of more than USD 52.13 million in the first six months of this year.

Tax authorities have handled 38 individuals with income from Google, with arrears, fines, and late payment interest of VND 169 billion, and three enterprises with arrears tax, fines, and late payment interest of VND 327 million. Some tax departments have significant revenues, such as the Hanoi Department of Tax with about VND 358 billion, the HCM City Department of Tax with about VND 146 billion, and the Da Nang Department of Tax with about VND 67 billion.

Photo: Zing

HCM City approves 50% port infrastructure fee cut

Port infrastructure fees for international goods transported by inland waterways in and out of Ho Chi Minh City will be cut by half from August 1. A meeting of the municipal People's Council on July 7 passed a resolution on amendments and supplements to the collection rate of fees for using infrastructure and public services at ports, including a fee reduction.

Accordingly, a 50% cut in fees will be applied to goods for temporary import and re-export or deposited in bonded warehouses and for transit and transshipment of goods. It will collect the same rates for imported and exported goods declared outside the city and those declared in the city. Besides these measures, imported and exported goods for national defense and security, responding to and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and epidemics, and some other purposes will be exempt from fees.

Earlier, business associations had proposed that the Prime Minister ask the city to stop collecting infrastructure fees at seaports. They said that the proposed fees were very high and it was not the right time to implement a collection plan, adding that it would have negative impacts on business operations and the Government’s economic recovery and development program. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has asked the city to adjust infrastructure fees at seaports by July.

Therefore, the city’s Department of Transport has recently submitted a document to the municipal People's Committee asking for the fee adjustment after beginning the automatic fee collection from April 1. The move aims to help businesses dealing with stiff challenges, such as rising fuel prices, and promote the city’s economic recovery program after Covid-19. The reduction in fees also seeks to encourage businesses to increase the use of waterways and reduce pressure on road transport.

The current fee for goods for temporary import and re-export or deposited in bonded warehouses and for transit and transshipment goods is VND 50,000 (USD 2.2) per tonne for liquid and bulk cargo, VND 2.2 million (USD 94.5) for a 20-foot container and VND 4.4 million (USD 189) for a 40ft container.

For imported and exported goods declared outside the city, the corresponding rates are VND 30,000 (1.3 USD), VND 500,000 (USD 21.5), and VND 1 million (USD 43); and for those declared in the city, VND 15,000 (USD 0.6), around VND 250,000 (USD 10.7) and VND 500,000. More than 500 billion VND (21.5 million USD) has been collected via the automatic collection system so far.

The city expects to fetch revenues of about 3 trillion VND (129 million USD) a year. It plans to invest the amount in port connectivity projects, including new roads and upgrades to existing ones near ports, as well as improving waterways and inland ports.

Photo: Zing

Export news: Australia ends anti-dumping tax on aluminum extrusions imported from Vietnam

Australia’s Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) has decided not to continue to impose anti-dumping duties on aluminum extrusions originating from Vietnam and Malaysia. Per the ADC’s final conclusion for its final review of the anti-dumping tax period for Vietnamese and Malaysian aluminum extrusions, the products accounted for a relatively small share of the Australian market during the past five years. The application of anti-dumping measures, meanwhile, did not create significant impacts on Australia's aluminum extrusion industry, according to VNA.

According to the ADC, it is unlikely that the products imported from Vietnam and Malaysia will continue to cause damage to the Australian manufacturing industry. Therefore, the 1.9% effective rate of duty imposed on Vietnam was said to expire on June 27, 2022. The final review began on September 15 last year, examining the period from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

US extends anti-tax evasion investigation into Vietnamese steel pipes imports

The US Department of Commerce has extended the time to consider requests for an investigation into the charge on trade remedy tax evasion regarding some steel pipe products, mostly those coded HS 7306.61 and 7306.30 imported from Vietnam, for another 30 days. Accordingly, the consideration will last until July 28 instead of July 1 as announced earlier.

In their lawsuit, large steel pipe manufacturers in the US accused Vietnam of importing hot rolled steel (HRS), the main raw material for producing steel pipes, from mainland China, Taiwan (China), the Republic of Korea and India, and then simply processing it into steel pipes for export to the US in order to evade the respective trade remedy tax that the US is levying on the above-said countries.

The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam has recommended that Vietnamese businesses involved continue to review the production and export activities of the investigated products, especially the HRS raw material sources. It also advised the firms to study the US’s regulations on tax evasion investigation procedures and to strictly and fully comply with the US agency’s requirements during the course of the investigation, if any.

Photo: Zing

Weather Forecast

July 13-14: The North is affected by the subtropical high-pressure blade with stable intensity. Meanwhile, the Southern region is affected by the southern edge of a low-pressure trough with the strong southwest monsoon.

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