Pursuant to Item 2, Point 5, Article 1 of Decree No. 102/1998/ND-CP of December 21, 1998 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of Articles of Decree No. 28/1998/ND-CP of May 11, 1998 of the Government which details the implementation of VAT Law, in order to promptly solve difficulties for production and business units using the import goods and to ensure the uniform collection of VAT in the stages of import and domestic production and business, the Ministry of Finance hereby guides the amendments and supplements to the implementation of the 50% reduction of VAT for import goods as follows:

To immediately reduce 50% of the VAT to be paid when the following products are imported:

- Coal.

- Mechanical ploughs, tractors, mechanical water pumps, machine-tools, dynamos.

- Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium hypochloxide (Na(OCl)), calcium hypochloxide (Ca(OCl)2), aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), hydrochloric acid (HCl), liquid-chlorine and gas-chlorine(Cl2), sodium silicate(Na2SiO3).

- Software services and software products.

The payable VAT amount declared on the customs declarations and tax notices of the customs authorities are the VAT amount calculated at the tax rate already cut by 50%.

This Circular takes effect as from February 10, 1999 and has no retrospective effect on the cases where the goods were imported and the VAT were declared, calculated and paid according to the customs declarations made before February 10, 1999.

For the Minister of Finance

Vice Minister