CIRCULAR No. 73/1999/TT-BTC OF JUNE 14, 1999 GUIDING THE COLLECTION OF LICENSING FEE FOR SETTING UP RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS IN VIETNAM

Pursuant to the Government�s Decree No. 04/1999/ND-CP of January 30, 1999 on charges and fees belonging to the State budget;

Pursuant to the Prime Minister�s Decision No. 53/1999/QD-TTg of March 26, 1999 on a number of measures to promote foreign direct investment;

The Ministry of Finance hereby provides guidance on licensing fee for setting up resident representative offices of foreign economic organizations in Vietnam as follows:

1. All foreign economic organizations and individuals when licensed to set up their representative offices and/or representative branches of their Vietnam-based offices shall have to pay fee as stipulated in this Circular.

2. Fee level: The licensing fee for setting up representative offices and/or representative branches of the Vietnam-based offices shall be 1,000,000 dong (one million dong)/license and be collected in Vietnam "dong".

Foreign economic organizations or individuals, that have already been granted licenses and now apply for the extension of their operation duration, shall not have to pay the fee.

3. Agencies competent to license the setting up of resident representative offices of foreign economic organizations in Vietnam shall have:

- To register, declare, collect, remit and settle the final accounts of licensing fee with the local tax offices in localities where fees are collected as stipulated in Circular No. 54/TT-BTC of May 10, 1999 guiding the implementation of the Government�s Decree No. 04/1999/ND-CP of January 30, 1999 on charges and fees belonging to the State budget.

- To collect fee before granting licenses and issue receipts for collection (form of fee and charge receipt issued by the General Department of Tax) to the payers. The fee and charge collecting units shall have to manage and use the receipts in strict accordance with the regime prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

- To remit all the collected fee amount to the State budget. The expenses for organizing the fee and charge collection, as well as the appraisal of the establishment of representative offices of foreign economic organizations in Vietnam shall be funded by State budget according to the estimate approved annually.

4. This Circular takes effect as from July 1, 1999 and replaces Circular No. 100/TC-TCT of December 3, 1993 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the collection, management and use of fee for setting up resident offices of foreign economic organizations in Vietnam and regulations on the percentage of temporary deduction from collected licensing fee amount stipulated in Circular No. 65/1998/TT-BTC of May 15, 1998 of the Ministry of Finance.

The Departments of Tax of provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to supervise and urge their fee-collecting units to promptly remit the collected fee amount to State budget.

In the course of implementation, if any difficulty arises, concerned organizations and individuals are requested to promptly report it to the Ministry of Finance for study and settlement.

For the Minister of Finance

Vice-Minister