The Ministry of Finance has recently released draft amendment to the current regulations on duty-free goods under Decree 167/2016. We discussed below some proposed amendments:

·        The definition of “goods temporarily imported to Vietnam” is amended to include goods temporarily imported from “non-tariff zones and bonded warehouses”. Under existing regulations, it is not clear whether or not goods from non-tariff zones and bonded warehouses can be sold in duty-free stores.

·        Bags, packaging for the purpose of carrying duty-free goods are now also considered duty-free goods.

·        New customs procedures and customs supervision are provided for duty-free goods transported between duty-free goods warehouse and airplane for sales purpose on international flight from and to Vietnam in the case the airplane enters and exits Vietnam in different international airports.

·        The draft amendment also allows enterprises with multiple duty-free stores, duty-free goods warehouses under the management of different customs units to choose to complete customs procedure and settlement report at only one unit. This can be considered facilitation to these enterprises because under Decree 167/2017, they have to perform customs procedures at the Sub-department of Customs where their headquarters is located and have to send settlement reports to each Sub-department of Customs where each of their duty-free stores locates.

This post is contributed by Nguyen Thuc Anh and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu