INTER-MINISTERIAL CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE COLLECTION AND USE OF SURCHARGE IN THE TOURIST SERVICE

Surcharge in the Tourist Service is a payment made by customers to tourist services and hotels for the good quality of their services, and also an expression of the appreciation of customers for the employees' good service.

The State has issued documents guiding the use of this revenue in the Tourist Service: Official Dispatch No.2815-V7 on July 2, 1980, Decision No.342-CT on December 9, 1987 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now the Prime Minister), Decision No.04-CT of January 3, 1990 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Circular No.06-TC/TCDN of February 25, 1990 of the Ministry of Finance. Since 1991 when the Laws on turnover tax and profit tax began to be applied, all surcharge has been accounted for in the turnover to calculate turnover tax, but the collection and use of surcharge has become erratic, a number of services have not collected it properly, not accounted for it clearly, or not used it rationally.

In order for the collection and use of surcharge in the Tourist Service to really become an economic lever, to encourage the cadres and employees to improve the quality of their service and raise the business efficiency while fulfilling the obligation of tax payment taxes to the State Budget, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Tourism give the following guidance on the collection and use of surcharge:

I. CONDITIONS, SCOPE AND RATE OF SURCHARGE:

1. Conditions and scope:

a/ Conditions: The units of the Tourist Service providing services for tours, passenger transport, hotels, entertainments... are allowed to collect and use surcharge if they meet the following conditions:

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- Publicly putting up a list of rates.

- Clearly accounting for the surcharge paid by customers.

b/ Scope: The business units in the Tourist Service are allowed to collect surcharge in addition to the customary charges of the following services:

- Renting bedrooms;

- Providing foods and drinks;

- Renting means of transport with drivers;

- Services like laundry, tailoring, hair-dressing, esthetics...;

- Sauna;

- Tours, tourist guides, organized entertainments;

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2. Rate of surcharge:

The Tourist Service units which are qualified as mentioned in Point 1(a) are permitted to collect at most a 5% surcharge on the customary service charge stipulated in Point 1(b).

II. USE OF SURCHARGE:

Surcharge is a payment made in addition to the customary service charges stipulated and added to the total service charge paid by the customers. The unit concerned must account separately for the surcharge, the service charge, and the price of goods on each bill, and register them for paying turnover tax according to the tax rate set for the business concerned.

The surcharge collected after deduction to pay the turnover tax shall be distributed as follows:

Part of it, but not exceeding 50% of the salary and wage fund, shall be used to reward the individuals and collectives with good quality of service, to organize study tours to improve professional skills and to improve the working conditions. This spending is regarded as rational and legal spending in fixing profit tax and shall not be included in the controlled level of funds for enterprises according to the regime of annual dividend distribution.

After paying the turnover tax and granting rewards as mentioned above, the unit concerned shall account for the remaining part in its revenues in order to fix the rate of profit tax and pay it as stipulated. For the losing business units, they are not allowed to make the above-mentioned spendings, but account for it in its revenues to make up for the losses.

III. MANAGEMENT:

The Tourist Service units have to closely organize and manage this source of revenue, organize the collection of the fixed percentage of surcharge on the services mentioned above, and rationally distribute it among the members of the unit according to this regime. They should re-organize the writing of bills to be paid by the customers, write the surcharge as a separate item for easy supervision and management. They must ensure that their cadres and employees shall not receive tips in any form.

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The Tourist Services shall have to strictly carry out the concrete stipulations of this Inter-ministerial Circular, and shall not set up other funds in any form for distribution. The Taxation Service shall have to distribute bills to the units in conformity with the requirement of this Circular.

This Circular takes effect on January 1st, 1995. All relevant documents issued earlier which are contrary to these stipulations are now annulled.

HEAD OF THE GENERAL DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM




Do Quang Trung

FOR THE MINISTER OF FINANCE
VICE-MINISTER




Vu Mong Giao

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