Hence, it’s urgent for Dong Nai province which has the biggest number of
FDI enterprises and industrial zones in Vietnam to soon have rules regulating
FDI enterprises without representatives.
Escaping foreign-invested
enterprises are leaving southern Dong Nai province authorities and bankers with
splitting headaches. According Dong Nai Industrial Zone Authority (Diza), from
2004 to date, 42 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects capitalised at $141
million and hiring 3,848 labourers have “no owners”.
In 2012’s first half, Dong Nai
province witnessed three vanishing foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), namely
British Virgin Island-based candle and candle holder manufacturing King May
Craft Company Limited, Korean-invested indoor furniture of sofas manufacturing
Brandon Miles Design Company Limited and Korean-based partition manufacturing
Fine Cubicle Company Limited.
“We cannot contact owners of
these firms,” said Diza director Vo Thanh Lap. He added the disappearances had
left big debts and financial disputes for guaranteed creditors, banks and
industrial park developers.
Not only taxation bodies and
customs agencies have been trying to chase for the FIEs to ask to pay debts,
but commercial banks are also worried because of the big debts. They are asking
the court for auctioning debtor’s assets.
However, even when the court can
find the successful bidder, the bidder cannot implement administrative
procedures to identify assets on land and register investment in the same
position of the old enterprise.
For example, the third party
Interior Decoration and Construction Company Limited 7 could not conclude the
deal to buy Vinh Phu Corporation’s factory because the factory had previously
been bought from Bien Hoa II Industrial Zone-based Dong Nam Company Limited
which has not completed the contract with authentication and whose owner
disappeared.
Hence, Vinh Phu Corporation does
not have enough conditions to transfer the factory to the buyer.
Besides that, Dong Nam Company
also left tax and insurance debts to national budget of VND307 million
($14,700) and another debt of $155,800 of Corporation for the Development of
Bien Hoa Industrial Zones (Sonadezi).
Because of these debts, the
province cannot release the decision to stop the operation of Dong Nam and
revoke its investment license.
Currently, Vietnamese law does
not regulate a solution for FDI projects which have no representatives in
Vietnam.
According to Lap, Diza had sent
six petitions to the Ministry of Investment and Planning (MPI) since 2008, but
still had no detailed instructions.
“In the future, there could be
more similar cases to Dong Nam. Hence, it’s urgent for Dong Nai province which
has the biggest number of FDI enterprises and industrial zones in Vietnam to
soon have rules regulating FDI enterprises without representative in Vietnam in
order not to waste land and asset for a long time,” said Lap.
In case of Dong Nam, he pointed
out that the open regulations of the Import-Export Tax Law and the Tax
Management Law have been exploited to evade tax.
During the period when FIEs enjoyed
tax exemptions, many FIEs imported goods in big quantities. After that, they
stop operation, while the business owners quietly left Vietnam. As a result,
customs agencies cannot collect the tax arrears from the enterprises.
Meanwhile, enterprise owners have run away.
Apart from Dong Nai, Vung Tau and
Binh Duong provinces also face with the same situation.
Tran Hao Hung, head of the MPI’s
Department of Legislation, said a draft decree amending Decree 108/2006/ND-CP
detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the
Investment Law will include principles to address situation of projects lacking
of representative in Vietnam.
Accordingly, the draft decree
will have scenarios for solutions based on the progress of implementing projects.
For those projects which generate
no debt, the investment certificate issuer revokes the investment licence and
announces the news to relevant agencies. The provincial industrial park
authority will be responsible for storage, maintenance and handling of assets
of the project in align with civil law.
For those projects which have
been deployed and has must-liquidate debt or must-dispose asset, state bodies
will be replaced the enterprise to be responsible to solve rights for third
parties including authority, partners and labourers.
Minh Thien | vir.com.vn
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