Joint Circular No. 04/2001/TTLT-BTC-TCHQ dated January 12, 2001 guiding the concentration, management of collection and payment of export tax and import tax into the State Budget through the State Treasury

JOINT CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE CONCENTRATION, MANAGEMENT OF COLLECTION AND PAYMENT OF EXPORT TAX AND IMPORT TAX INTO THE STATE BUDGET THROUGH THE STATE TREASURY

In furtherance of the Government’s Decree No.87/CP of December 19, 1996 prescribing in details the assignment of responsibilities for elaborating, implementing and settling the State budget, the Finance Ministry issued on March 31, 1998 Circular No.41/1998/TT-BTC to guide the regime of concentrating and managing the State budget’s revenues through the State Treasury, and on February 1, 1999 Circular No.12/1999/TT-BTC guiding the amendments and supplements to a number of points in Circular No.41/1998/TT-BTC. In order to ensure the full and timely concentration of the State budget’s revenues and the uniform management of collection and payment of export tax and import tax, the Finance Ministry and the General Department of Customs hereby jointly prescribe the procedural process and procedures as well as responsibilities of the State Treasury and the Customs for concentrating and managing export tax and import tax amounts, which are collected and remitted into the State budget through the State Treasury, as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Collected tax amounts and other revenues prescribed in this Circular are export tax, import tax, value added tax on import goods, special consumption tax on import goods, personal income tax, price differences and other collections by the Customs according to the prescribed regime (collectively referred to as export tax and import tax) at border-gates, airports, ports (collectively referred to as border-gates) throughout the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

2. All collected export tax and import tax amounts must be remitted into the State budget through the State Treasury. Export tax and import tax may be paid in Vietnamese currency or in foreign currencies, in cash, checks or account transfer as specified in the Finance Ministry’s Circular No.41/1998/TT-BTC of March 31, 1998.

3. The collection and payment of export tax and import tax at border-gates shall be directly effected through the State Treasury. At some border-gates, where the State Treasury’s transaction offices cannot be set up (due to unavailability of work places or unsafety of work places, small or irregular revenues), the Customs authorities there shall directly organize the timely collection and payment of such taxes into the State Treasury.

4. Vouchers evidencing the payment of export tax and import tax are the State budget payment bills. In cases where the Customs authorities directly collect taxes or the tax payers fail to make State budget payment bills, the Customs authorities shall use receipts upon tax collection and inscribe payment bills upon payment of collected amounts into the State budget.

The State budget payment bills, receipts for collection of export tax and import tax shall be uniformly printed, distributed and managed by the Finance Ministry (the General Department of Tax) according to the current regulations.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

A. THE ORDER AND PROCEDURES FOR COLLECTING AND PAYING EXPORT TAX AND IMPORT TAX

1. Collection and payment of export tax and import tax at the State Treasury’s offices

The collection and payment order and procedures shall comply with the provisions of the Finance Ministry’s Circular No. 41/1998/TT-BTC of March 31, 1998 and Circular No. 12/1999/TT-BTC of February 1, 1999. More concretely as follows:

a/ Collection notices: Basing themselves on the amounts of taxes and other revenues payable to the State budget declared by the tax payers themselves on written declarations of export and import goods, the Customs authorities shall conduct inspection and send collection notices on payable amounts to the payers. Collection notices must specify in detail payment items according to chapters, categories, clauses, items and sub-items of the State budget index.

Basing themselves on each payment item’s nature, the Customs authorities shall indicate payment accounts right on the collection notices on the following principles:

- Direct budget payment shall be channeled into account 741 "State budget revenues".

- Amounts of custody nature shall be channeled into account 921 "Kept in custody pending settlement".

b/ The State budget payment bills: shall be made in conformity with the forms of bills for the State budget payment in cash or account transfer prescribed in the Finance Ministry’s Circular No.12/1999/TT-BTC of February 1, 1999.

c/ Basing itself on the content of bills for the State budget payment in cash or account transfer submitted by tax payers, banks or Customs authorities, the State Treasury shall organize the collection and accounting thereof and divide the budget revenues among the budget levels according to the prescribed proportions and the current budget index.

In cases where the State budget payment bills wrongly inscribe or omit the State budget index’s details, the State Treasury’s officials shall have to coordinate with Customs officers and tax payers in correcting them and promptly paying them into the State budget.

2. Collection and payment of export tax and import tax at the State Treasury’s collection spots

- Basing themselves on the payable tax amounts stated in collection notices of the Customs authorities or written declarations of export goods or import goods, the payers shall make 5 copies of each bill for State budget payment in cash or in account transfer according to the form set in the Finance Ministry’s Circular No.12/1999/TT-BTC of February 1, 1999: The first copy shall be retained at the counterfoil, other 4 copies shall be taken to the State Treasury’s collection spot at the border-gate for payment of tax(es) into the State budget.

- Upon receiving 4 copies of the payment bill from the payer, the accountant at the State Treasury’s collection spot shall check the content of such voucher, then pass it directly to the cashier for collection.

- The cashier shall check payment bill copies again, request the payer to classify in writing the remitted money, collect the money, make entries to the cash book, sign and affix seal "money received" on the payment bill copies, then return them to the accountant.

- The accountant shall sign and affix the collection spot’s seal on the payment bill copies and handle them as follows:

+ The third copy shall be returned to the payer, the fourth copy shall sent to the border-gate Customs authority;

+ The other copies (the second and fifth copies) shall be kept for a day at the State Treasury’s collection spot to serve as basis for drawing up a list of payment bills. The list of payment bills shall be made in 3 copies: One copy shall be kept at the collection spot, one handed to the border-gate Customs and another kept together with the collection vouchers at the State Treasury’s office.

- Basing itself on the State budget payment bills already certified by the State Treasury, the Customs authority shall compare them with the Customs declarations for carrying out the procedures for the payers to receive their goods or settle tax arrears.

- At the end of each day, border-gate Customs officers and officials working at the State Treasury’s collection spots shall make comparison and give certification signatures on the list, which shall, together with the collection vouchers, serve as basis for carrying the money amounts collected on a day to the State Treasury in direct management charge. The order and procedures for paying money at the State Treasury’s office shall comply with the current regulations.

* In cases where export goods and import goods at border-gates are largely non-commercial goods, non-quota goods, luggages,... the collection procedural process shall be as follows:

- Basing themselves on the collection notices or written declarations of export goods or import goods, border-gate Customs officers shall make 3 receipt copies: the third copy shall be retained at the counterfoil, the other 2 copies shall be directly sent to the officials at the State Treasury’s collection spot.

- The officials at the State Treasury’s collection spot shall base themselves on the receipts to collect taxes from the payers and make entries to the cash book, sign on such receipts and return them to the Customs officers.

- Border-gate Customs officers shall send to the tax payers the second copy of tax collection receipt together with the declaration for carrying the procedures for receiving goods; the first copy shall serve as basis for making the list of receipts.

- At the end of each day, border-gate Customs officers and accountants of the State Treasury’s collection spots shall make comparison and give certification signatures on the list of receipts. The list of receipts shall be made in 3 copies: One shall be kept together with the first receipt copies at the Customs office; one shall be kept at the State Treasury’s collection spot; and another shall serve as basis for making the State budget payment bills. Every day or within 5 days, the border-gate Customs authority shall base itself on the list of receipts to make the State budget payment bills; the State Treasury’s collection spots shall transfer payment bills (together with the list of receipts) and the collected amounts to the State Treasury office in direct management charge.

- Basing itself on the payment bills together with the amounts transferred by the collection spots, the State Treasury shall carry out the procedures for taking in money amounts and accounting the State budget’s revenues according to the current prescribed regime.

3. Collection and payment of export tax and import tax directly through the Customs authorities

The Customs authorities shall use collection receipts for directly collecting export tax and import tax from the tax payers. Periodically, basing themselves on the tax collection receipts, the Customs authorities shall draw up detailed lists of receipts according to the set form and inscribe bills of payments into the State budget in cash for paying the whole collected amount into the State Treasury according to the prescribed regime.

The Customs authority in each locality shall base itself on the collected amounts, the distance and traffic conditions from the border-gate to the State Treasury ..., to reach an agreement with the State Treasury on prescribing the time schedule for paying collected export tax and/or import tax into the State Treasury (daily or within 10 days). The Customs authorities shall remit collected export tax and/or import tax amounts into only the State Treasury’s offices, not at the collection spots outside the State Treasury’s offices.

B. TASKS AND POWERS OF CUSTOMS AUTHORITIES AND THE STATE TREASURY’S OFFICES FOR CONCENTRATING AND MANAGING THE COLLECTION OF EXPORT TAX AND IMPORT TAX

1. The Customs authorities:

1.1. To promptly issue collection notices and guide tax payers to make State budget payment bills according to the regulations.

1.2. To directly organize the collection of export tax and/or import tax at the border-gates where the State Treasury’s collection spots have not yet been set up, and remit the collected amounts into the State Treasury according to the provisions at Point 3, Section A, Part II of this Circular.

1.3. To facilitate the arrangement of location and working facilities for the State Treasury’s collection spots at the border-gates, and coordinate with the State Treasury in ensuring the safety of the State’s assets and money therein.

1.4. Periodically (monthly, quarterly, annually), basing themselves on the collection vouchers already signed and sealed by the State Treasury, the Customs authorities shall make reports on collection of export tax and/or import tax in their respective localities, and compare them with the State Treasury’s vouchers, in order to ensure their consistency and accuracy.

In the course of comparison, if any discrepancy arises, the two sides shall have to check and compare the collection and payment vouchers, and promptly notify such discrepancy to the concerned units for synchronously correcting wrong or omitted data according to the current accounting regime.

1.5. To organize the accounting and cost-accounting activities, and make accounting and settling reports according to the prescribed regime.

2. The State Treasury’s offices:

2.1. To coordinate with the Customs authorities in their respective localities in locating spots for transactions directly through the State Treasury at places where there exist all the conditions specified at Point 1.3, Clause 1, Section B above.

2.2. To concentrate fully and promptly all collected export tax and import tax amounts into the State budget (including amounts collected directly by the Customs authorities) and divide such collected amounts to each budget level according to the prescribed proportion.

2.3. The State Treasury’s offices of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall notify the Customs authorities in the localities of the sample seals and signatures of the State Treasury’s officials at the transaction spots for comparison and transaction.

2.4. Periodically (monthly, quarterly, annually), the State Treasury shall coordinate with the Customs departments of the provinces and centrally-run cities in comparing the collected amounts of export tax and import tax, ensuring the consistency between data of the two branches (as mentioned at Point 1.4, Section B, Part II above).

2.5. To organize the accounting and cost-accounting activities and make reports according to the prescribed regime.

III. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. This Circular takes effect after its signing.

2. The Customs, the State Treasury and the concerned organizations and individuals shall have to strictly observe the regime of collecting and paying export tax and import tax as prescribed in this Circular. Units and/or individuals that violate such regime shall be handled according the current law provisions. Periodically (quarterly, biannually and annually), the Customs authorities and the State Treasury’s offices shall coordinate in appraising the result of the work of collecting and paying export tax and/or import tax and activities of inter-branch collection spots in their localities.

3. In cases where the localities apply the information technology to the concentration and management of the State budget’s revenues, with specific procedures and procedural processes for collection and payment, they shall have to work out and report plans thereon to the Finance Ministry and the General Department of Customs for consideration and permission.

Any problems arising in the course of implementation must promptly reported to the Finance Ministry (the Central State Treasury) and the General Department of Customs for coordinated solution.