The Vietnam Shippers’ Association has recently sent a letter of recommendation to the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Price Management Bureau (Ministry of Finance), and Vietnam Maritime Administration on strengthening the management of surcharges and fees by foreign shipping lines.
According to the Vietnam Shippers’ Association, for many years, foreign shipping lines have unilaterally imposed dozens of different fees and surcharges on goods of Vietnamese import-export companies. Not only that, these shipping lines have also continuously increased these fees and surcharges without basis or compliance with the regulations of the state management agencies. The increases are mostly much higher than the container handling charges that shipping lines pay to Vietnamese seaports.
According to the latest update, when Circular 39/2023/TT-BGTVT of the Ministry of Transport adjusted the prices of pilotage services, bridge, wharf, buoy, container handling, towing, which was promulgated on December 25, 2023 and became effective from February 15, 2024, in early February 2024, foreign shipping lines simultaneously announced a 10 – 20% increase in the Terminal Handling Charge (THC) for each type of container service in Vietnam. It is worth mentioning that this fee increase only applies to Vietnam, while other countries in the region have not shown any signs of increase. Moreover, in absolute terms, the 10 – 20% increase in the THC fee by shipping lines is more than three times the adjustment of container loading and unloading fees in Vietnamese seaports.
Export-import enterprises appeal as shipping lines arbitrarily raise freight rates, surcharges (Illustration image)
“Circular 39 has been carefully researched by relevant ministries and agencies for more than 5 years without adjusting any type of service price. However, foreign shipping lines have immediately asserted their right to adjust the level of THC fees exclusively applied to Vietnam just less than a month after Circular 39 was promulgated. All these shipping lines need to do is to change the prices 15 days before the adjustment without any inspection, explanation of the factors for the fees, surcharges or any report or binding regulation of the competent authorities,” emphasized the Vietnam Shippers’ Association in the recommendation.
The Vietnam Shippers’ Association also added that this THC adjustment is not the first time. Therefore, this poses a great challenge for the country in managing foreign shipping lines and protecting the legitimate interests of import-export enterprises, seaports, and domestic logistics services.
With the above-mentioned concerns, the Vietnam Shippers’ Association proposes that the competent authorities need to take strong and resolute measures to control the THC and surcharge adjustment behaviors of foreign shipping lines.
Specifically, it is necessary to add a surcharge outside the sea freight services to the list of goods, services subject to price declaration in order to complete the mechanism of price management and types of surcharges for goods at seaports, to avoid cases where shipping lines arbitrarily raise prices and improperly collect fees, affecting the rights of shippers.
Shipping lines need to submit reports on the structure of THC fees, and in case these surcharges generate super profits, the functional authorities need to apply special consumption tax policies.
To soon review and promulgate the mechanism for managing the collection of various surcharges, comparing with the regulations of Vietnamese law and international practices; request shipowners to immediately stop collecting unreasonable fees; at the same time, recommend that the Prime Minister issue appropriate mechanisms for managing the collection of fees by foreign shipping lines operating in Vietnam.
