In Vietnam, firms still have to bribe customs to get clearance: survey People complete customs clearance at the Cat Lai Seaport in Ho Chi Minh City. Tuoi Tre A 2015 survey asking firms in Vietnam if they have to pay unofficial fees for quicker customs clearance received fewer "yes" responses than in previous years, but under-the-table money is still an issue for many businesses. Twenty-eight percent of the businesses polled by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said they had to pay ‘black money’ to customs officials, compared to the 49 percent and 57 percent recorded in the same survey in 2013 and 2012, respectively. The VCCI did not conduct the survey last year. It is worth noticing that 37 percent of the respondents in the 2015 survey of 3,100 businesses refused to answer the ‘unofficial fee’ question, the VCCI said in its results report released on Thursday. Customs agencies in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong Province and Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province in the south, and Hanoi, Lang Son Province and Thanh Hoa Province in the north, received the most complaints for demanding under-the-table money from businesses, according to the results. While businesses agree that customs procedures in Vietnam are “available and accessible,” 20 percent of the respondents said the paperwork to clear customs is “complicated and hard to understand,” Dau Tuan Anh, head of legislation with VCCI, said. Thirty-one percent of the businesses said they had to pay an unofficial fee to avoid being ‘discriminated’ by customs officials. “[Businesses] have to wait longer to get customs clearance, or asked to supply papers or documents that the laws do not require if they refuse to pay under the table,” Anh explained. Respondents also complained about rigid procedures to get a tax refund or apply for a tax exemption. Seventy-three percent said there are too many forms to fill in to complete customs clearance, whereas 31 percent whined they had been asked to supply information or documents that were not included in customs rules. “All of these results illustrate that businesses are still facing real problems when it comes to customs,” Pham Thanh Binh, a customs expert, said. Binh added the customs sector has actually changed and reformed its regulations to facilitate corporate operations, but there are still many unsolved issues. “The regulations on getting a tax refund is so complicated that even a man with 30 years of experience like me feels dizzy reading them, let alone new businesses,” he said. TUOI TRE NEWS