Circular No. 13/TC-TCT amending and supplementing Circular No. 16-TC/TCT dated March 5, 1996 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Decree No. 91/CP dated December 18, 1995 on the list of goods to implement the Preferential Tariff Program (CEPT) of ASEAN countries for the year 1996, to be applied for the year 1997.

CIRCULAR

Amending and supplementing Circular No. 16/TC-TCT dated March 5, 1996 of the Ministry of Finance on "Guidelines for Implementing Decree No. 91/CP dated December 18, 1995 of the Government on Issuing the List of Goods to Implement the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme (CEPT) Agreement of ASEAN Countries for 1996" to apply for 1997.

To implement the Agreement on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme (CEPT) of ASEAN countries, on March 5, 1996, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 16/TC-TCT guiding the implementation of Decree No. 91/CP dated December 18, 1995 of the Government on issuing the list of goods to implement the CEPT Agreement of ASEAN countries for 1996.

To implement Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government on issuing the list of Vietnamese goods to implement the CEPT Agreement of ASEAN countries for 1997, the Ministry of Finance supplements and amends some points of Circular No. 16/TC-TCT dated March 5, 1996 to apply for 1997 as follows:

I. ON SCOPE OF APPLICATION

Clause 1 and Section 1 of Part I of Circular No. 16/TC-TCT shall be amended as follows:

"Goods imported into Vietnam subject to import tariff rates prescribed in Point 1 of Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government are goods imported from ASEAN countries and must meet the following conditions:

1. They must be items included in the List of Goods issued together with Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government."

II. ON THE TAX SCHEDULE

1) Clause 1 of Part II of Circular No. 16/TC-TCT shall be amended as follows:

"The tax rates applicable to goods imported under the preferential tariff rates of the CEPT Program are those rates specified in the List of Goods issued together with Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government."

2) Add the following clause to Part II of Circular No. 16/TC-TCT:

"Amendments and supplements to the name and import tariff rate of goods according to decisions of the Ministry of Finance concerning groups and items specified in the current Import Tariff Schedule shall be handled as follows:

- In cases where the amendment of the tariff rate leads to the Import Tariff Schedule rate being higher than the preferential tariff rate under the CEPT Program for a specific group or item, the Import Tariff Schedule rate will be applied to imported goods that are items included in the List of Goods issued together with Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government;

- Other amendments and supplements to the name and import tariff rate of other goods not apply to the list of goods issued together with Decree No. 82/CP dated December 13, 1996 of the Government."

III. ON INSPECTION OF ORIGIN CERTIFICATES

The principles for determining whether goods are recognized as originating from ASEAN countries stipulated at point (i) and (ii) of Section III - Inspection of Origin Certificates of Circular No. 16/TC-TCT shall be replaced by the rules of the Origin Regulation used for the CEPT Agreement stipulated in Appendix I of the Decision on Issuing the ASEAN Certificate of Origin Model D, issued together with Decision No. 416/TM-DB dated May 13, 1996 of the Ministry of Trade.

This Circular takes effect from January 1, 1997 and applies to all import cases from ASEAN countries with customs declarations registered with customs authorities from January 1, 1997.

Points not supplemented or amended in this Circular shall be implemented as prescribed in Circular No. 16/TC-TCT dated March 5, 1996 of the Ministry of Finance./.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

This Circular takes effect from January 1, 1997, and applies to all cases of import from ASEAN countries where the import declaration is registered with the Customs authority from January 1, 1997.

The points not supplemented or amended in this Circular shall be implemented as prescribed in Circular No. 16 TC/TCT dated March 5, 1996, of the Ministry of Finance./.