Vehicles brought home by repatriated overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) will be re-exported or confiscated if Viet Kieu fail to meet requirements for importing vehicles as transferred property.

>> 5 Lexus cars imported for Viet Kieu allegedly to evade taxes Under a proposal of the Finance Ministry, overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) who repatriate and bring along vehicles will have their vehicle re-exported or confiscated if they fail to meet requirements for importing vehicles as transferred property.   The ministry has sent the proposal to the Prime Minister as a way to handle cars and motorbikes brought into Vietnam by repatriated Viet Kieu as their transferred property that do not satisfy relevant requirements. Nineteen customs departments reported that they have kept 47 cars and 2 motorbikes at ports since the beginning of the year since they cannot be considered transferred property, the ministry said in a report to the Prime Minister. |The ministry said it has worked with the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Public Security, and Justice and Transport about a solution to handle these vehicles.

Accordingly, such vehicles should be forcibly re-exported under Decree 97/2007 by the Government within 30 days after the relevant customs agency issues a decision on re-exporting them, the ministry said.

A pecuniary penalty will also be applied along with the forced re-export, the ministry added.

“In cases in which owners fail to meet conditions for their vehicles to be re-exported or they do not comply with a decision on re-exporting them, such vehicles will be confiscated under applicable regulations, the ministry said.

Review to detect smuggling

The ministry also reported cases to the Prime Minister in which cars and motorbikes sent home by repatriated Viet Kieu met conditions for importation, but are still being kept at ports for different reasons.

Under the ministry’s report, the number of such vehicles from the beginning of this year until August 13 was 208 cars and 11 motorbikes.

In order to handle these vehicles, the ministry said it would order the General Department of Vietnam Customs to review each case to detect signs of smuggling, if any.

Cases of smuggling vehicles into Vietnam will be handled under Item 3 of Article 45 of the Customs Law.

The ministry previously warned about an “abnormal” situation in which Viet Kieus’ vehicles were sent home in large quantities, the number of which increased dramatically from 164 in 2011 to 1,142 last year. 

Most of these vehicles are new models of high-value brands, such as Porsche, Bentley, BMW and Mercedes, the ministry reported.

Vehicles sent home by Viet Kieu that are left unclaimed at ports will be handled in accordance with Item 4 of the above article of the Customs Law, the ministry said.