Checks cost importers dearly

The figure did not include the costs and fees of permits and similar papers, borrowing, warehousing, labor and opportunity, Nguyen Minh Thao, director of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Department at the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the workshop on orientations for amendments and supplements to a number of specialized laws on management held by CIEM and GIG.

Specifically, it costs at least VND200,000 for each quarantine and VND2 million for quality control and food safety inspections, Thao estimated, based on the statistics from the HCMC Department of Customs.

Goods circulating through HCMC account for 40-50% of the nation’s total, with a higher volume subject to specialized checks. The number of import declarations in need of checks at the 32 other customs offices equal only 50% of that in HCMC and costs around VND546 billion.

For example, an enterprise imports eight coolers worth US$8,000, or VND165 million, but has to spend VND134 million on testing and quality control at the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 1 (Quatest 1), with shipping costs yet to be included.

GIG expert Nguyen Thanh Binh, former director of the Supervision and Management Department at the General Department of Customs, emphasized those were only the minimum figures that the survey team used for temporary calculation. The actual figures should be much higher.

It is stipulated that the costs of sampling, testing or inspections are covered by the agencies in charge, unless enterprises themselves request such processes. In reality, however, each and every cost is paid by importers, said Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Thao ascribed the situation to flaws in laws and regulations. Therefore, CIEM proposed amendments and supplements to four laws.

Those are the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations 2006, the Law on Product Quality 2007, the Law on Food Safety 2010 and the Law on Energy Saving and Efficiency 2010. The revisions must be geared towards fundamental changes in transparency and adoption of international practice.

Binh suggested Article 48 of the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations be revised so that the certification of conformity would be given to an entire line of products rather than a single product. In addition, the certification should be done with the first shipment only.

This opinion met with opposition, however. Not only would this go against the principles of product quality control but it would also violate international commitments and practice, said Doan Thanh Tho, deputy head of the Department of Legislation and Inspection under the Directorate of Standards, Metrology and Quality.

Do Phuoc Tong, vice chairman of the HCMC Mechanical Engineering Association, said despite the Government’s resolutions, without the enforcement by State agencies, things would fall into oblivion and businesses would be those who suffer. Therefore, besides mulling a law fixing numerous laws as what the Ministry of Planning and Investment is doing, it is important to set out specific sanctions for ministries and agencies which issue legal documents beyond their authority and against the current laws.