Some specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Nghe An province: Proposing investment incentives for aquaculture projects in coastal areas

Free use of sea area for 15 years

According to the draft, the objective of the mechanism and policy is to create conditions to help Nghe An province attract aquaculture projects within the marine area managed by Nghe An province.

The specific contents of the mechanism and policy are as follows: Exemption from fees for using sea areas for 15 years and a 50% reduction in fees for using sea areas for the remaining period for the sea area assigned to implement marine aquaculture projects of organizations and individuals who are domestic investors with marine aquaculture activities beyond 06 nautical miles, areas located both within and beyond 06 nautical miles;

Apply a corporate income tax rate of 10%, tax exemption for 04 years and 50% reduction of tax payable for the next 09 years for income of organizations that are domestic investors from aquaculture projects at sea beyond 06 nautical miles, areas located both inside and outside 06 nautical miles;

Exemption from sea area usage fees for 15 years for sea area allocated for implementation of marine aquaculture projects of domestic investors and organizations with marine aquaculture activities from 03 to 06 nautical miles.

Applying a corporate income tax rate of 17%, tax exemption for 02 years and 50% reduction of tax payable in the next 04 years for income of organizations that are domestic investors from aquaculture projects at sea from 03 nautical miles to 06 nautical miles;

Within the local budget balance, the Provincial People's Council decided to support the cost of purchasing accident insurance for workers working on aquaculture cages and on vehicles serving aquaculture activities at sea, and support the cost of purchasing natural disaster risk insurance for aquatic products raised at sea.

The time for starting to enjoy incentives, conditions for applying tax incentives, and income eligible for incentives prescribed in this clause shall comply with the provisions of the law on corporate income tax.

Encouraging the implementation of new investment projects in offshore aquaculture

The Ministry of Planning and Investment explained the above proposal that currently, there are no specific regulations defining areas with difficult or especially difficult socio-economic conditions in Nghe An's coastal areas for aquaculture. Accordingly, if the current regime is applied, corporate income from offshore aquaculture activities in Nghe An will only be subject to a 15% corporate income tax rate and exemption from water surface rent for a period of 11 years.

Therefore, to encourage domestic investors to implement new investment projects on offshore aquaculture, this policy proposes that the scope of offshore aquaculture beyond the 6 nautical mile sea area, the sea area located both inside and outside the 6 nautical mile can apply the same incentives as new investment projects in extremely difficult areas; from 3-6 nautical miles can apply the same incentives as new investment projects in difficult areas. The above proposed preferential policies on corporate income tax and water surface rent are applied to all organizations and individuals with offshore aquaculture projects that have been approved by competent authorities for investment policy, assigned sea areas for offshore aquaculture and licensed for offshore aquaculture.

At the same time, the policy content also clearly stipulates that in case an enterprise has enjoyed incentives according to the provisions of this policy, during the implementation process, if the competent state agency discovers that it is not eligible for incentives, the enterprise will not be entitled to those incentives.

The above policy mechanism has been approved by the National Assembly for pilot application in Khanh Hoa province. This is a proposal to change the law, the drafting agency has conducted an impact assessment of this policy proposal (in the attached Impact Assessment Report).