HCMC – The HCMC People’s Council yesterday, July 7, passed a resolution to reduce the seaport fees for goods transported on waterways. The fees have been collected for over three months.
The move is aimed at encouraging the growth of inland waterway transport and supporting enterprises to recover post pandemic.
The city will exempt the fees for imported goods to serve the country’s security and national defense, social welfare and to cope with the aftermath of diseases and natural disasters; goods stored in bonded warehouses or in transship, and those entering and exiting ports through waterways under a convention on waterway transport between Vietnam and Cambodia, reported the local media.
Import-export goods transported by waterway are subject to a 50% reduction in fees. In addition, the fees for goods declared in HCMC or in other provinces were revised to remain the same.
HCMC began the seaport fee collection in early April this year. However, the fee collection has sparked an uproar among many businesses and associations that said the fee collection would increase the cost burden on businesses, especially when enterprises are striving to recover post pandemic.
Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh then worked with the HCMC government and asked it to consider reducing the fees.
