Công văn 5339/TCHQ-GSQL

To: Customs Departments of provinces and cities

On April 19, 2019, the Prime Minister has promulgated the Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg on import of used machinery, equipment and technological lines; For the purposes of properly controlling import activities and preventing the misuse of investment incentive policies to import into Vietnam old, obsolete or poor-quality machinery and equipment which do not meet business requirements, cause an increase in costs of products or environmental pollution, or adversely affect enterprises’ competitiveness, the General Department of Customs hereby provides the following guidelines:

1. With regard to used machinery, equipment and technological lines: Customs Departments of provinces and cities shall direct their affiliated Customs Sub-departments to:

a) refuse to perform customs procedures or release of used machinery, equipment and technological lines that are exported from countries which have publicly announced disposal of these products due to their obsolescence, poor quality, cause of environmental pollution or failure to meet safety, energy saving or environmental protection requirements set forth in relevant laws, and take actions against violating importers in accordance with the Government's Decree No. 45/2016/ND-CP dated May 26, 2016 on amendments to the Government’s Decree No. 127/2013/ND-CP dated October 15, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations and enforced implementation of administrative decisions in customs sector.

b) pay attention to the following contents when inspecting the customs dossier:

- request the declarant to provide sufficient information relating to names, categories, brands, quality, model, codes, manufacturing year, country of origin, HS codes and codes of legislative documents on electronic customs declaration; compare information provided by the declarant with the import dossier.

- compare used machinery/ equipment/ technological lines to be imported with the list of used machinery, equipment and technological lines discarded as announced by foreign countries because of their obsolescence, low quality, or causing of environmental pollution published on the website of the Ministry of Science and Technology (The Ministry of Science and Technology has published on its website the list of enterprises adopting obsolete production technology discarded as announced by China).

c) pay attention to the following contents when carrying out physical inspection of goods:

- inspect and verify information relating to names, categories, brands, model, manufacturing country, manufacturing year, quality (old or new), signs of altering, removing or replacing brand/stamps of goods, and write the inspection results on the Result note. If any information cannot be verified through inspection, the Result note must include the statement “Information relating to manufacturing year, quality or manufacturing country, etc. cannot be verified through the inspection”.

- Customs officials must take pictures of the entire shipment and keep them with the customs dossier they suspect that:

+ The used technology line to be imported fails to satisfy the criteria specified in Article 5 of the Decision (e.g. it fails to meet national technical regulations on safety, energy saving and environmental protection; its remaining capacity or performance does not achieve at least 85% of its design capacity or performance, etc.);

+ The used machinery or equipment piece to be imported fails to satisfy the criteria specified in Article 6 of the Decision (e.g. its age exceeds the prescribed number of years; it fails to meet national regulations on safety, energy saving and environmental protection, etc.).

d) take goods into storage:

Taking goods into storage shall be subject to the provisions in Clause 3 Article 8 of the Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg and guidelines given by the Ministry of Finance in Article 32 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC (as amended in the Circular No. 39/2018/TT- BTC).

When taking goods into storage, the customs officials shall seal the entire shipment and make record of goods transfer for storage, in which the customs authority’s suspicions concerning the shipment must be specified for sending to the professional inspection body designated or accredited by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The inspection certificate which is presented by the declarant to the customs authority for completing customs clearance procedures must bear the inspection body’s certification of the status quo of the customs seal appended on the shipment when it is transferred to the inspection body.

e) grant customs clearance:

* Only inspection results provided by inspection bodies for used machinery, equipment and technological lines designated or accredited and published by Ministry of Science and Technology on its website are accepted to grant customs clearance.

The inspection certificate must include all contents and be valid as regulated in Article 10 of the Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg .

- The customs clearance shall be granted to the shipment of the used technological line or machinery/equipment to be its part if the shipment is supported by a sufficient import dossier as regulated in Clause 1 Article 7 and the inspection certificate indicates that the imported used technological line meets all of the requirements in Article 5 of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg .

- The used machinery/equipment shall be granted customs clearance if it is supported by a sufficient import dossier as regulated in Clause 1 Article 8 of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg. If the used machinery or equipment to be imported has been manufactured in any of G7 countries or Korea without the manufacturer's certification or that machinery or equipment has been manufactured in a country other than G7 countries and Korea, the shipment must be supported by the inspection certificate indicating that the used machinery or equipment to be imported meets all of the requirements in Article 6 of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg .

g) Imported used machinery, equipment and technological lines shall be directly used by importers to serve their business and production only. They shall not be used for any commercial purposes.

2. With regard to machinery/ equipment/technological line whose quality is not declared or which is declared to be brand-new product, the customs official shall request the Director of the relevant Customs Sub-department to carry out the physical inspection if, through the inspection of the import dossier, the customs official suspects that the declarant provides false information relating to the shipment. Based on the inspection results, the customs authority shall make customs clearance decision.

Goods cannot be transported to warehouse before the inspection result is provided.

3. Customs Departments of provinces and cities shall direct their affiliated Customs Sub-departments to intensify the physical inspection and properly control used machinery, equipment and technological lines which are imported from countries other than G7 countries and Korea, and suspected to be used to serve the production of goods in Vietnam for the purposes of taking advantage of Vietnam-originated goods and benefiting tax incentives when exporting these goods to other countries.

4. This Official Dispatch shall supersede all official dispatches issued by the General Department of Customs providing guidelines for the Circular No. 23/2015/TT-BKHCN dated November 13, 2015 of the Ministry of Science and Technology stipulating the import of used machinery, equipment and technological lines and other regulations on import of used equipment.

5. Customs Departments of provinces and cities are requested to comply with guidelines herein until they are replaced by other guidelines given by the General Department of Customs. Any difficulties arising in the course of implementation of these guidelines should be promptly reported to the General Department of Customs (via Customs Supervision and Management Division) for consideration.