DOING BUSINESS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY IN VIETNAM

1. Renewable energy definition

Renewable energy, reborn energy is also commonly known as clean energy refers to the energy that comes from resources such as water, wind, sunlight, geothermal heat, tides, waves, biological fuels, and other resources that can generate renewable energy [1];

2. Popular resources of renewable energy in Vietnam

• Hydropower

• Solar Energy

• Wind Energy

3. Policy on incentives and assistance to development and use of renewable energy

The development projects using renewable energy shall be entitled to the incentives of investment credit under the current regulations of law on investment credit and export credit of the State [2]

• The maximum state investment loan for a project is 70% of the total investment capital of such project (excluding liquid capital);

• Loan terms shall be determined according to the capital recoverability of projects and debt payment ability of borrowers to suit production or business characteristics of projects but must not exceed 12 years. Particularly for group-A investment projects, the maximum loan term is 15 years;

• The state investment loan interest rate is equal to the weighted average of bid-winning interest rates of Vietnam Development Bank’s bonds with a 5-year government guarantee within 1 year before the date of announcement of such interest rate under this Decree plus (+) a percentage of operation management expenses and a risk provision of the Vietnam Development Bank.

4. Tax incentives

About import tax:

• The development projects using renewable energy shall be entitled to import duty for imported goods to create the fixed assets for the projects; the imported goods as raw materials, supplies, semi-finished products in the country not yet domestically produced are imported for production under the projects under current regulations of law on import and export tax [3];

• Tax exemption for the exports and imports serving environmental protection imported machinery, equipment, equipment, tools, supplies that cannot be domestically produced serving collection, transport, treatment wastewater, wastes, exhaust gases, environmental monitoring and analysis, production of renewable energy [4].

About corporate income tax:

• Incentive tax rate of 10% within 15 years applied to Income of enterprise from performing new investment project in the field of production of renewable energy [5];

• Tax exemption for 4 years, reduction of 50% of tax payable for the next 9 years for Income of enterprise from performing new investment projects is specified in Clause 1, Article 15 of Decree No. 218/2013/ND-CP [6].

[1] Article 43 Law on environmental protection 2014.

[2] Article 7, 8, 9 Decree No. 32/2017/ND-CP.

[3] Clause 13 Article 16 Law on Export and Import Duties No. 107/2016/QH13.

[4] Clause 19 Article 16 Law on Export and Import Duties No. 107/2016/QH13.

[5] Point b clause 1 Article 15 Decree No. 218/2013/ND-CP on Detailing and Guiding the Implementation of Law on Corporate Income Tax.

[6] Point a clause 1 Article 16 Decree No. 218/2013/ND-CP.

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