The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development April 9 announced a list of 39 seafood companies eligible to export seafood to Russia, state media reported Friday.
The Vietnamese catfish export steering board led by Deputy Minister Luong Le Phuong will come to Russia to sign commitments on quality and specific contracts in order to facilitate the export.
The deputy minister said the companies allowed to export seafood to Russia meet almost all of safety and hygiene standards set by this importer, of which 20 companies are tra catfish companies.
Russia is seen as a potential importer of Vietnamese catfish and sugpo prawn, which imported nearly US$200 million worth of seafood from Vietnam in 2008.
Vietnam is expected to export more than US$200 million seafood to Russia in 2009, and US$500 million yearly after 2010.
Followings are names of the companies to export seafood to Russia in 2009:
1 Da Nang Dried seafood plant under Hai Thanh Co. Ltd
2 Quang Nam Hai Ha Co. Ltd
3 Khanh Hoa Hai Vuong Co. Ltd
4 Ninh Thuan Dried seafood plant under the Ninh Thuan farm produce exporting Co. Ltd
5 Ba Ria Vung Tau I (F34) seafood processing and exporting plant under the Ba Ria Vung Tau Seafood Im-Export JSC
6 Ba Ria Vung Tau IV seafood processing plant under the Ba Ria Vung Tau Seafood Im-Export JSC
7 Ba Ria Vung Tau Chang hu Vietnam Co. Ltd
8 Ba Ria Vung Tau Seafood processing plant under the Con Dao processing and exporting Co.
9 Dong Nai An Long Co. Ltd
10 HCM city Vietnam-Russia Seafood Joint Venture (Seaprimfico)
11 HCM city Binh Thoi seafood processing plant under the Sai Gon seafood trading JSC
12 HCM city Dried seafood plant under the Tam Tam Saigon JSC
13 HCM city Cho Lon food processing plant under the Saigon seafood trading JSC
14 HCM city An Lac Co. Ltd
15 HCM city Thang Loi frozen plant under the Saigon trading JSC
16 Ben Tre Branch of the Green Field Co. Ltd in Ben Tre
17 Ben Tre Ba Lai seafood processing plant under the Ben Tre forestry-seafood Im-Export JSC
18 Ben Tre Dried seafood plant under the Pacific Seafood and Trade Co. Ltd
19 Tien Giang Viet Phu farm produce JSC
20 Tien Giang Hung Vuong seafood JSC
21 Tien Giang Vinh Quang seafood JSC
22 Soc Trang Sao Ta food JSC
23 Đong Thap Hung Ca Co. Ltd
24 Đong Thap QVD Đong Thap Co. Ltd
25 Can Tho Southern Seafood Co. Ltd
26 Can Tho Hiep Thanh seafood processing JSC
27 Can Tho Thuan Hung Co. Ltd-Plant No. 1
28 Can Tho BASA JSC
29 Hau Giang Canfatex seafood JSCx
30 Hau Giang Tay Do seafood plant under the Cafatex seafood JSC
31 An Giang Frozen plant No. 7 under the An Giang seafood Im-Export JSC
32 An Giang Frozen seafood No. 9 under the An Giang seafood Im-Export JSC
33 An Giang An Xuyen Co. Ltd
34 An Giang NTACO JSC
35 An Giang An Thinh seafood processing plant under the Viet An JSC
36 An Giang Pacific seafood processing plant under the Nam Viet JSC
37 Kien Giang KISIMEX Rach Gia under the Kien Giang seafood JSC
38 Kien Giang Huy Nam Co. Ltd
39 Kien Giang Dried seafood plant under the Trung Son food JSC
(Labor, Dantri.com)
Speeding up Debt Settlement to Facilitate Import- Export (lo thi Nu.jpg)
Vietnam and the world have continued facing economic downturn, which have badly impacted customs sectors’ revenues. In the first quarter of this year, the revenues reached VND24.8 trillion, equal to 20.5 per cent of the National Assembly’s target and down 15.5 per cent on-year. Regarding this, Vietnam Business Forum reporter had an interview with Lo Thi Nu, Head of Department on Checking Import–Export Tax Collection under the Vietnam General Department of Customs.
In the context of Vietnam’s import-export drop, the National Assembly’s tax target is relatively high? What the customs sector will do to achieve the goal?
To realise the National Assembly’s target of collecting VND121.2 trillion this year, the customs sector has worked out a series of solutions, including review the existing preferential import tax rate in order to ask the Ministry of Finance to adjust import-export tax tariffs, and to review agreements that have been concluded with other countries or agreements that we are in the process of negotiating, including the agreement on oil exploitation. For oil exploitation, we have proposed that taxes will be calculated from the time the tax payers register their export declarations (in previous agreements, the commitment tax rate was 4 per cent). In the meantime, we’ll continue to streamline customs procedures and tax administration management to promote export activities, enhance customs officials’ responsibility while trying to detect tax dodging and recovering tax debts.
Could you explain the problem of overdue debts, particularly import-export debts, and measures to overcome them?
This is a key task that our department must undertake this year.
Under the Import and Export Tax Law which was effective before January 1, 2006, importers and exporters are allowed to owe taxes with no pre-conditions. To solve this problem, the customs department has categorised the debts into specific groups and reported them to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance for consideration to come up with settlement measures.
A guiding principle in settling the overdue debts is to quickly free the goods in warehouses, reduce management costs and raise the responsibility of customs officials.
Besides issues being considered by the Government and the Finance Ministry to assist domestic production and boost exports, should the Customs Department consider comments/suggestions from enterprises seeking measures to increase tax collection revenues?
We should consider carefully the three comments raised by import-export enterprises as follows: First, we are committed to reforming tax management procedures, including a proposal to extend payment times for tax payers importing materials to produce export products from 275 to 365 days, and to delay the payment of value-added-tax on imported machines, equipment and materials from 30 to 60 days.
Second, we will try to regularly update legal documents for importers and exporters. We realise that sometimes taxpayers have lost business opportunities or have to pay fines because of their ignorance of the new tax policies.
And finally, we have to closely monitor the activities of local customs offices to help them solve problems as quickly as possible in accordance with existing laws.
It is said that disputes sometimes occur between enterprises and customs offices. Does the General Department of Customs have any plans to solve this problem?
To cut down customs clearance times and to avoid unwanted disputes between customs offices and enterprises, our department has recently renovated its methods of calculating tariff rates.
Instead of checking during customs clearance, as it has done in the past, we now apply "yellow", "red" and "green" gates to quicken the procedures.
Goods that are considered sensitive like automobiles and motorcycles must go through the "yellow" or "red" gates.
Goods going through the "green" gate will be checked after completing the customs clearance.
At the check points, we will continue to offer consultancy services, but only in the case of suspicious price quotations. For fraud dossiers suspicion, we just make a mark in the declaration paper and do the consultancy in post customs clearance. In the past, we consulted both before and after customs clearance.
In the customs reform process, we have tried to raise the customs officials’ awareness about accountability and transparency.
If an enterprise accepts tax calculations by the customs office, their goods will be cleared immediately. If they don’t, they will have to wait 30 days for consultation. However, in this case, to have their goods temporarily cleared, the enterprise will have to deposit a certain sum for the difference between the price that they declared and the calculation made by the customs official.
Reported by Thanh Tam
Vietnamese
