Decidedly reclaiming VND350 billion, petroleum importers determined to “fight”

Nov 14th at 11:53

14-11-2013 11:53:37+07:00

Though having paid the tax arrears of VND350 billion as requested by the Ministry of Finance, the seven petroleum distributors still keep claiming innocent.

The Vietnam Petroleum Association has lodged a petition to the Prime Minister, claiming innocent in the tax payment of VND350 billion.

The association has proposed the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministry of Finance to recall the document No 17060/BTC – VP dated December 7, 2012 (which requested petroleum enterprises to pay tax arrears), and to follow the Decree No. 154/2005/ND-CP and Circular No. 194/2010/TT-BTC on the customs procedures and tax management applied to imports and exports.

The association has also asked the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministry of Finance to give back the sum of money, which would be deducted from the tax sums they have to pay next year.

The collection of the VND350 billion worth of tax from seven petroleum enterprises first stirred up the public in April 2013. The enterprises, though having paid the tax arrears, still feel discontented about the decision.

The story originated from the Ministry of Finance’s Document No. 17060/BTC – VP dated December 7, 2012. The ministry requested customs agencies to change the customs declaration forms for the consignments of petroleum products which were temporarily imported but were not re-exported as initially planned.

As a result, customs agencies had to calculate the tax sums petroleum enterprises had to pay. The sums of tax defined later were higher than the initially defined sums, which means that petroleum enterprises had to pay additional money.

According to the Vietnam Petroleum Association, its member companies did not try to evade tax. They have always been following the Circular No. 194 in making customs declarations. This means that they don’t have to change the customs declaration form when they put the imports on domestic sale instead of re-export as initially planned.

The petroleum enterprises have petitioned their innocence to many agencies. However, they still had to pay the tax arrears. The Ministry of Justice was the only one agency that gave a decision beneficial to the enterprises. It asked the Ministry of Finance to remove the Document No. 17060/BTC – VP because of the legal problems.

However, the Ministry of Finance, ignoring the Ministry of Justice’s opinion, confirmed the penalty on the petroleum enterprises.

The Dispatch No. 170/Ktr of the Ministry of Justice on July 16 said the Ministry of Justice’s Document 17060, a notice at the ministerial level, changed the customs mechanism set up in the Circular No 194. Especially, the document released the decision which went beyond the legal stature of a “notice.”

The Ministry of Justice believes that the mechanism set up by the Circular No. 194 still has legal validity and it must be obeyed by the subjects in the national economy. If the Ministry of Finance wants to change the mechanism, it must replace the circular No. 194 with another one, while it must not use an administration document to amend the provisions in a circular.

The Ministry of Finance has reaffirmed its viewpoint that it needs to collect tax arrears.

Especially, an official of the ministry said on October 14 that the tax arrears collection has been done in accordance with the instruction by the Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh.

vietnamnet