Caption: Porters handle goods at Cát Lái Port in HCM City’s District 9. — VNS Photo Ngọc Hải

HCM CITY — The Customs Bureau of HCM City has proposed that city authorities collect infrastructure fees at seaports to increase revenue for the city.

During a meeting with the HCM City Party Committee last week, the chief of the HCM City Customs Bureau, Đinh Ngọc Thắng, asked the city's People’s Committee to collect fees for use of infrastructure facilities and public services at seaport terminals for import-export activities.

HCM City has invested large sums from the State budget every year for transportation networks, infrastructure facilities and public service facilities at or near seaport terminals that serve import-export activities.

As the State budget is used for many other works, fees from individuals and agencies using public facilities for import-export activities would help increase the city’s revenues and ease pressure on the State budget, according to Thắng.

According to figures from the Association of Việt Nam Seaports, HCM City seaports throughput last year reached 6 million TEUs, and Hải Phòng seaports throughput 2 million TEUs.

The northern port city of Hải Phòng collects fees at its ports. Its People’s Council said that infrastructure fees from Hải Phòng Seaport amounted to VNĐ1,295 billion (about US$56 million) in 2018.  

Thắng said that even with infrastructure fees half the level collected at Hải Phòng Port, HCM City ports would bring in infrastructure fees of VNĐ1,925 billion (approx. US$83.3 million).

Revenue from seaport infrastructure fees could also be used to invest in infrastructure development for business activities, which would contribute to making HCM City a ‘smart’ city and improve logistics services, he said.

The proposal to collect seaport infrastructure fees is supported by the HCM City Finance Department and the Sài Gòn New Port Corporation. 

Thắng said that HCM City should use the fees to invest in transportation infrastructure and remove obstacles that prevent connections between seaports and transportation networks.

New measures

As of late October, the city’s customs bureau reported total revenue of VNĐ99.4 trillion (US$4.3 billion), accounting for 91.4 per cent of the city’s all estimated revenue for the year, and up by 15.3 per cent (about VNĐ13.2 trillion) compared with the same period last year.

By the end of the year, the city’s customs Bureau is expected to collect VNĐ121 trillion, up by 13.62 per cent over last year, according to the Customs Bureau.

Đinh Ngọc Thắng, chief of the HCM City Customs Bureau, said the bureau had taken steps to control contraband, trade fraud, forgery of goods origin and intellectual property violations, including the turning of foreign products into “made-in-Việt Nam” goods.

In the first nine months of this year, customs agencies in HCM City discovered 43 drug transport cases and seized more than 580 kilos of drugs of various types.

Thắng said in the coming months, the city customs agencies would focus on efforts to combat contraband, trade fraud, tax evasion and fraud.

The Customs Bureau has asked authorities to provide ports with modern machinery and equipment that can detect drugs in containers handled at the ports. — VNS