DECISION

ON THE PRICE BRACKET FOR CONTAINER LOADING AND UNLOADING SERVICES AND TOWAGE SERVICES IN VIETNAM SEAPORTS

THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT

Pursuant to Vietnam Maritime Code dated November 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Prices dated June 20, 2012;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 107/2012/ND-CP dated December 20, 2012 on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 149/2016/ND-CP dated November 11, 2016 on amendments to certain articles of the Government’s Decree No. 177/2013/ND-CP dated November 14, 2013 on the implementation of certain articles of the Law on Prices;

At the request of the Director of Department of Transportation and the Director General of Vietnam Maritime Administration,

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. This Decision is enclosed with the price bracket for seaport services, which includes:

1. Price bracket for container loading and unloading services.

2. Price bracket for towage services.

Article 2. Regulated entities

1. This Decision applies to domestic and foreign organizations and individuals in connection with the pricing of container loading and unloading services and towage services.

2. The service charges shall be levied on the following international maritime vessels and the passengers aboard:

a) Vessels that enter, exit, transit or anchor in maritime zones (including export processing zones); and the foreign vessels that operate in non-seaport territorial waters of Vietnam;

b) Vessels that carry imports, exports, cargoes transshipped or in transit in maritime zones, which include export processing zones;

c) Passenger vessels departing from Vietnam for a foreign country or vice versa; special purpose vessels which operate on international voyages entering, exiting, transiting or anchoring in maritime zones;

d) Imports, exports, transshipped and transiting commodities, including those entering or exiting export processing zones upon their loading, unloading, delivery, preservation and custody in maritime zones;

3. The service charges shall be levied on the following domestic maritime vessels:

a) Domestic maritime vessels that enter, exit, pass through or anchor in maritime zones;

b) Domestic maritime vessels that carry cargoes and passengers enter, exit, pass through or anchor in maritime zones;

c) Vessels that operate on waterway routes between mainland’s coasts and islands.

d) Vessels specialized in oil and gas industry, which operate at offshore platforms or dedicated ports serving oil and gas activities under the management of a maritime port authority;

dd) Vessels of the armed force, customs or port authorities and Vietnamese vessels specialized for search and rescue on official assignments shall not incur the service charges defined in the price bracket enclosed herewith; in case they are used for commercial operations in Vietnam, they shall be subject to seaport service charges as prescribed in this Decision.

Article 3. Rules for seaport service pricing

1. The service price bracket enclosed with this Decision is defined by general pricing method applicable to goods and services prescribed in the law on prices and other relevant law provisions.

2. The providers of seaport services shall decide prices of their prices according to the price bracket enclosed with this Decision in accordance with the applicable law on management of seaport service pricing, service quality and market conditions.

3. The prices in the price bracket set forth in this Decision include 10% value-added tax.

Article 4. Definitions

In this Decision, the following terms are construed as follows:

1. Vessels include ocean-going ships, military ships, public vessels, fishing vessels, inland watercrafts, seaplanes and other water-borne vehicles.

2. Special purpose vessels include ships and boats specialized for oil exploration and extraction (vessels in petroleum industry), ships and boats engaged in the construction of maritime structures, ships and boats for maintenance of maritime safety, training ships, scientific research ships and public vessels.

3. Lash (Lighter Aboard Ship) vessel is a specialized vessel aboard which lash barges are carried across a river or sea.

4. Lash barge is a specialized barge that carries dry cargoes or bulk cargoes and is capable of reaching deeper inland on channels whose technical conditions are limited.

5. Gross Tonnage (GT) is the maximum total capacity of vessels shown in the certificate of volume issued by a register agency to the vessel as prescribed.

6. Maritime zone is boundaries of a body of water under the management of a port maritime authority. A seaport may include one or several maritime zones.

7. Cargo is commodities aboard a vessel, which include both loaded and empty containers.

8. Exports are commodities whose place of delivery (origin) is Vietnam and place of receipt (destination) is overseas.

9. Imports are commodities whose place of delivery (origin) is overseas and place of receipt (destination) is Vietnam.

10. Commodities in transit are merchandise whose place of delivery (origin) and place of receipt (destination) are outside Vietnam’s territory and which pass through or are handled at a seaport of Vietnam or are stored in a warehouse to continue their excursion;

11. Transshipped commodities are merchandise carried from abroad to a seaport of Vietnam and preserved in a transshipment area of the seaport in a certain period before being loaded onto and carried by a vessel out of Vietnam’s territory.

12. Service price bracket is a price range that includes the minimum and maximum prices of a service.

13. Minimum price is the lowest price of a service whose provider may charge on a customer.

14. Maximum price is the highest price of a service whose provider may charge on a customer.

Article 5. Pricing unit and number rounding

1. Gross tonnage (GT) is one of the basic units for pricing of maritime services, where:

a) For a vessel carrying liquid cargo: its gross tonnage is 85% of the maximum GT shown in the certificate issued by a relevant register agency to the vessel as prescribed, regardless of the availability of segregated ballast tanks on such vessel;

b) For a passenger vessel: its gross tonnage is 50% of the maximum GT shown in the certificate issued by a relevant register agency to the vessel as prescribed;

c) For the vessels whose GT is not specified, the following conversion applies:

- Ocean-going ships and inland unmanned surface vehicles: 1.5 deadweight tonnes is counted as 01 GT;

- Barges: 01 deadweight tonne equals 01 GT;

- Tugboats, passenger vessels (including seaplanes) and crane vessels: 01 horse power (hp, cv) is counted as 0.5 GT; 01 kW is counted as 0.7 GT; 01 tonne in a crane vessel’s hoisting capacity is counted as 06 GT;

- Passenger vessels whose engine power is not specified: 01 passenger seat is counted as 0.67 GT; 01 berth is counted as 4 GT;

- The gross tonnage of all barges, towboats or tugboats in a fleet of tugboats, towboats or pusher boats shall total up that of the fleet;

For the conversion set forth in Point c, Section 1 of this Article, the conversion method that results in the highest GT shall be selected.

2. Unit of engine power: The unit of a vessel’s main engine power shall be hp, cv or kW. The tenths in the decimal expansion of 01 hp, 01 cv or 01 kW shall be rounded to 01 hp, 01 cv or 1 kW.

3. Unit of time:

a) Day: 01 day equals 24 hours; an amount of 12 hours or less is counted as half a day while an amount of more than 12 hours is counted as 01 day;

b) Hour: 01 hour equals 60 minutes; an amount of 30 minutes or less is counted as half an hour while an amount of more than 30 minutes is counted as 01 hour.

4. The unit of mass of prices of container loading and unloading service includes:

a) Under 20-foot containers and 20-foot containers;

b) Under 40-foot containers and 40-foot containers;

c) Over 40-foot containers.

Article 6. Division of seaport regions

Vietnam’s seaport system is divided into 03 regions:

1. Region I: seaports located on 20 degrees north latitude, including seaports in Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh.

2. Region II: seaports located between 11.5 degrees latitude and 20 degrees latitude, including seaports in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Quy Nhon, Nha Trang, Binh Thuan.

3. Region III: seaports located on 11.5 degrees south latitude, including seaports in Ho Chi Minh city, Vung Tau, Can Tho, My Tho, Dong Nai, An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Ca Mau.

Article 7. Currency

1. The charges for services of loading and unloading of containers for export, import, transit, transshipment, temporary import, re-export and towage shall be levied on international vessels in Vietnam Dong or United States Dollar.

2. The charges for domestic container loading and unloading services and towage services shall be levied on domestic vessels in Vietnam Dong.

3. The conversion of United States Dollar to Vietnam Dong shall be subject to the transfer buy rate announced by the Joint-stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam at the time of payment.

Chapter II

PRICE BRACKET FOR CONTAINER LOADING SERVICES AND UNLOADING AND TOWAGE SERVICES

Article 8. Price bracket for container loading and unloading service

1. Price bracket for container loading and unloading service in Region I

a) Price bracket for domestic container loading and unloading service

Unit: VND/container

b) Price bracket for import, export, temporary import and re-export container loading and unloading service (not applicable to Lach Huyen deep-sea port)

Unit: USD/container

c) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service (not applicable to Lach Huyen deep-sea port)

Unit: USD/container

d) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service applicable to Lach Huyen deep-sea port.

Unit: USD/container

dd) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service applicable to Lach Huyen deep-sea port.

Unit: USD/container

e) Price bracket for service of loading and unloading of container from badges to port’s yards and vice versa only applies to container loading and unloading in service of carriage between seaports for export and transfer to destination seaport.

Unit: USD/container

2. Price bracket for container loading and unloading service in Region II

a) Price bracket for domestic container loading and unloading service

Unit: VND/container

b) Price bracket for export, import, temporary important re-export container loading and unloading service

Unit: USD/container

c) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service

Unit: USD/container

3. Price bracket for container loading and unloading service in Region III

a) Price bracket for domestic container loading and unloading service

Unit: VND/container

b) Price bracket for import, export, temporary import and re-export container loading and unloading service (not applicable to Cai Mep and Thi Vai areas)

Unit: USD/container

c) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service (not applicable to Cai Mep and Thi Vai areas)

Unit: USD/container

d) Price bracket for import, export, temporary import and re-export container loading and unloading service (applicable to Cai Mep and Thi Vai areas)

Unit: USD/container

dd) Price bracket for transshipped and transiting container loading and unloading service (applicable to Cai Mep and Thi Vai areas)

Unit: USD/container

e) Price bracket for service of loading and unloading of container from badges to seaports and vice versa only applies to container loading and unloading in service of carriage between seaports for export and transfer to destination seaport.

Unit: USD/container

Article 9. Price bracket for towage service

1. Rules for maneuvering tugboats

a) Providers of towage service shall be responsible for maneuvering tugboats with quantity and power prescribed in regulation of regional seaport;

b) In case of provision of tugboats with the quantity and power higher than the level prescribed in seaport regulation of the regional maritime port authority, the provider shall calculate the price for towage service based on the quantity and power of tugboat prescribed in seaport regulation of the regional maritime port authority and price bracket.

c) In case of provision of tugboats with the quantity and power higher than the level prescribed in seaport regulation of the regional maritime port authority at the request of the port authority, the pilot, captain, ship company, or provider shall calculate price for towage service based on the quantity and power of tugboat.

d) According to the price bracket for towage service set forth in this Decision, providers of towage service shall be responsible for listing and sending a declaration of price for towage service of entry and exit according to whole length of the vessel at each seaport area.

dd) In case of maneuver of tugboat from another place to the pilot position, price for tugboat maneuver shall be agreed upon by the two parties but must not exceed 70% of price for towage service as prescribed in this Decision.

e) For the Azimuth tugboat, a maximum of 150% of the price defined in Clauses 2, 3 and 4 of this Article shall apply.

2. Price bracket for container loading and unloading service in Region I

a) Price bracket for towage service applicable to domestic vessels

Unit: VND/hour

b) Price bracket for towage service applicable to international vessels

Unit: USD/hour

3. Price bracket for towage service in Region II

a) Price bracket for towage service applicable to domestic vessels

Unit: VND/hour

b) Price bracket for towage service applicable to international vessels

Unit: USD/hour

4. Price bracket for towage service in Region III

a) Price bracket for towage service applicable to domestic vessels

Unit: VND/hour

b) Price bracket for towage service applicable to international vessels

Unit: USD/hour

Chapter III

IMPLEMENTATION

Article 10. Supervisory body and price declaration

1. Vietnam Maritime Administration shall take charge of receiving and reviewing the written declarations of seaport service prices set forth in Clause 1, Article 1 of this Decision.

2. Providers of container loading and unloading and towage services shall be responsible for declaring prices as prescribed in the law on prices.

3. On the 1st of July each year or at the request of the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam Maritime Administration shall be responsible for reviewing the list of companies that declare the prices for seaport services.

4. The list of the companies declaring seaport service prices as prescribed in this Decision shall be published on the website of Vietnam Maritime Administration (www.vinamaritime.gov.vn).

Article 11. Effect

1. This Decision comes into force from July 01, 2017.

2. The transition process from the effective date of this Decision shall proceed as follows:

a) The prices for the services provided for the vessels that arrive at a port prior to the effective date of this Decision shall be agreed upon by the parties;

b) The prices for the services provided for the vessels that arrive at a port from the effective date of this Decision shall be subject to the price bracket set forth in this Decision.

Article 12. Implementation

1. Specialized bodies and providers of seaport services shall report the application of the price bracket defined in Section 1, Article 1 herein 06 months after their compliance with the price bracket in this Decision.

2. Vietnam Maritime Administration shall guide the providers of seaport services to apply the price brackets prescribed by the State; shall direct maritime port authorities to cooperate with local finance and tax authorities in inspecting the implementation of the price brackets and in taking strict actions against violations of the law on price management.

3. In the event a provider's prices are not prescribed in the seaport service price brackets in this Decision, it shall inform Vietnam Maritime Administration thereof, and then submit a report to the Ministry of Transport for decisions on a case by case basis.

4. Chief of the Office of the Ministry, Chief inspector of the Ministry, Directors, Director General of Vietnam Maritime Administration, heads of agencies, relevant companies and individuals shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.