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Businesses complain about automatic import licencing scheme
Businesses are complaining that the automatic import licencing scheme, which has been in effect since September 7, has been burdening them, while bringing imports and exports to a deadlock.
Import-export division staffs of Ly Bao Minh Joint Stock Company in district 5, HCM City these days are very busy checking the import items it has to get automatic import licences for. Under Decision No 24 dated August 1, 2008 on applying the automatic import licencing scheme, enterprises have to make declarations for automatic import licences if they import any of 90 different items, from vegetables, coffee and fruit to steel, cars and consumer products.
Head of Ly Bao Minh’s Import-export division To Anh Huy said that the company now has to spend more time and needs more staffs to make declarations and follow necessary procedures. However, what worries Huy most is that Decision 24 will hinder import-export activities, cause a commodity standstill not only for Ly Bao Minh but also thousands of other enterprises.
According to Huy, the decision stipulates that state management agencies and businesses have 10 working days to deal with one declaration; however, this proves to be unfeasible. Huy said that in many cases, it will take businesses one month to get automatic licences.
The representative of another import-export company shared the same concern as Huy, saying that 10 days proves to be not long enough to handle the cases and give answers to enterprises.
He said that under the Customs Law, enterprises can make declarations for their import commodities 15 days before the commodities arrive at ports. However, under Decision 24, importer can only make customs declarations 10-12 days after commodities arrive. Meanwhile, if importers do not get commodities within five days after the day commodities arrive, they have to pay the storage fee of $10/ 20-foot container and $20/40-foot container per day as of the 6th day.
The automatic import licencing scheme, as understood by businesses, is not a new kind of licence. In fact, businesses only register the imports so that the state can better know about the imports and exports of the whole country to help it better control the trade deficit. However, it seems that the new scheme needs to be adjusted so it is not such a burden on enterprises.
VNN
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