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Import-export fees burdening businesses
Every container of import or export products now has to bear tens of kinds of fees. An export company said that it has to spend VND10bil on these fees a month.
T., a staff of Vico Vietnam, said that the total fees companies have to pay to receive one container of commodities has soared from VND4mil to VND5mil. “The fees are expected to increase further this month as we have received notices from shipping agents about shipping fee increases,” T. said.
Prior to that, a lot of companies were shocked when they were asked to pay the so-called ‘port jam’ fee. Meanwhile, Vanguard Logistics Service announced the collection of DDC fee as of August 14. Phuong, a staff of a private-owned export company, said: “We have to pay $30 for every consignment while we don’t understand what DDC means. The shipping agent I contacted said that it just does what the parent company tells it to do.”
On August 15, in a notice sent to clients, ECU Line Vietnam announced the collection of a surcharge, $7 per consignment.
H., a staff of the import-export division of a garment company, said that the company now has to pay 10 kinds of fees in total.
H said that every month, the company imports and exports nearly 250 containers, which costs it nearly VND10bil. Especially, many shipping firms collect seasonal fees as the volume of imports and exports always increases in certain periods of years. For example, from May to August, many shipping firms collect $300/20-foot container and $400/40-foot container for exports to the US.
There are a lot of kinds of fees, from CFS charges, D/O fees, handling, and HF/HC fees. And there are different levels for every kind of fee. For example, some shipping agents collect a handling fee of $15/cu m, while others collect $20/cu m or $29/cu m.
Nhu Hong Hanh, Head of the Import- Export Division under Viet Tien Garment Company, said that the company complained about the chaotic fee collection situation five years ago and proposed that the Ministry of Finance set regulations on seaport service fees. However, Hanh said that the problems have not been settled yet, while new kinds of fees have been born, causing headaches for enterprises.
On August 20, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai requested the Ministry of Transport to set up a mission to collect information about the fee collection. The mission will later report about the fee collection and give suggestions on removing unnecessary fees.
VNN
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