Alert - New guidelines on the verification procedure of EPEs’ capability to satisfy Customs Inspection & Supervision Conditions

The OL provides guidance to provincial Departments of Customs on the procedure to verify EPEs’ capability to satisfy customs inspection and supervision conditions when asked by licensing authorities for the purpose of issuing Investment Registration Certificate (“IRC”) or written confirmation on the EPE status to the investors pursuant to Decree No. 82/2018/ND-CP dated 22^nd May 2018 by the Government.

Accordingly, the verification procedure shall be performed when the construction of factory and infrastructure is completed and the EPE is ready for production phase. When receiving request from licensing authorities, the managing customs authority shall carry out the verification on the following criteria:

• Physical fence surrounding, separated from the outside areas.
• Surveillance camera system that monitors and records sharp pictures of incoming and outgoing goods. The surveillance camera system must work 24/24, and the recorded data must be archived at the enterprise for at least 12 months. The surveillance camera system must also be connected directly to the managing customs authority.
• The inventory management system of the EPEs can extract necessary data of inventory movement and inventory balance for the customs reporting purpose.

It is noted that the specific tax and customs policies for EPEs shall only be applied when the EPE status is confirmed in the IRC or in a written confirmation by the competent licensing authority (in case IRC is not applicable). Therefore, in the period when EPE status is not confirmed in any valid documents, the enterprise is not yet recognized as an EPE and must apply tax and customs policies same as a domestic one.

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