Circular No.38/2023/TT-BTC providing guidance on declaration and payment of fees for appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports performed by central authorities.
Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) is the process of analyzing, evaluating, identifying, and forecasting the environmental impact of an investment project and proposing measures to minimize adverse environmental effects. Therefore, EIA can be considered as the process of analyzing, evaluating, and forecasting all the impacts on the environment from investment projects. Accordingly, the entity responsible for conducting EIA has the responsibility to propose appropriate solutions for environmental protection and minimizing negative impacts on the environment. Currently, the commitment to environmental protection and sustainable development is one of the important factors that demonstrate responsibility to society and the nation. Therefore, EIA has become an indispensable requirement in applications for various certificates, especially in the case of the Certificate of Corporate Income Tax Incentives for projects producing products in the supporting industry and prioritized development. In practice, many businesses have encountered difficulties regarding this documentation issue and have not been approved for certification due to non-compliance with EIA requirements.
On 8 June 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 38/2023/TT-BTC prescribing the collection, transfer, management and use of fees for appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports performed by central authorities.
Accordingly, the Circular guides the declaration and payment of fees for appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports as follows:
The organizations shall pay fees to the collectors from the time of submitting the application for appraisal to before holding the meeting of the Appraisal Council, the fee rates are specified in Circular No. 74/2022/TT-BTC.
The collector shall transfer the fee amount collected in the previous month to its dedicated account opened at the State Treasury by the 05th of each month.
Collectors shall declare, collect, transfer and finalizethe fees arcording to the regulation.
The rates of fees for appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports by central authorities are specified in the Fee Schedule of this Circular.
Regarding the management and use of fees for appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports, the Circular stipulates:
- Collectors shall transfer 100% of their total fees collected to central-state budget (local-state budget). Expenditures on performance of appraisal and fee collection tasks shall be covered by funding derived from state budget and specified in the collector’s expenditure estimate under spending policies and limits prescribed by laws.
- If the collector is a central or local authority that is allowed to use a pre-determined amount of fees to cover expenditures as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 4 of Decree No. 120/2016/ND-CP:
Shall retain 65% of collected fees to cover expenditures incurred during the performance of appraisal and fee collection tasks;
Transfer the remainder as 35% of collected fees to the central or local State Budget according to corresponding chapter, and sub-section in the list of state budget entries.
This Circular comes into force from 01 August 2023.