- According to Subparagraph 5, Paragraph 3, Article 29 of the Customs Act, the transport cost of the imported goods to the port or place of importation shall be included in the customs value. Furthermore, according to Article 18 of the Regulations for Administrating Vessel Carriers, any vessel carrier engaging in cargo and passenger liner services shall file its freight and passenger tariffs with the shipping administration; the aforementioned tariffs shall include various additional surcharges, methods of calculation, terms and conditions, and rules and regulations of transportation.
- The vessel carriers, in addition to charging the basic transport cost, also include various charges, such as “Low Sulphur Fuel surcharge (LSF)”. Because these surcharges are parts of the transport cost, regardless of whether it is paid by the importer or the foreign seller, they should be included in the customs value declaration to Customs. The declaration method is as follows:
(1) If the incoterms is CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) or CFR (Cost and Freight), but the transaction invoice does not include relevant additional charge, these additional charges should be filled in the “expense to be added” column of the import declaration and included in the customs value of the good. If the transport cost under the aforementioned terms is already included in the additional charge, no further reporting is required.
(2) If the incoterms is FOB (Free On Board), FAS (Free Along Side Ship), C&I (Cost and Insurance), or EXW (EX works), the additional charge should be included in the transport cost for declaration.
(3) Since the names of the charge reported to the maritime authority by each vessel carrier are different, the importers are still required to find out the relevant transport costs and additional charge from vessel carriers on a case-by-case basis for declaration to expedite the clearance of imported goods.