Accord 232-2020

OF DECREE No. 33-2020 TO ADDRESS THE HEALTH EMERGENCY AND COMBAT THE EFFECTS OF THE PROBABLE RISK OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION FIRST TITLE PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS SINGLE CHAPTER OF THE OBJECT, SCOPE OF APPLICATION AND DEFINITIONS

OBJECT.- The present Technical Tax and Customs Instruction has as its object to develop the provisions contained in Article 39 of Legislative Decree No. 33-2020 dated April 3, 2020, related to the Non-Subjection of the Sales Tax and Customs Duties on the Importation of raw materials, machinery, inputs, equipment, spare parts, accessories and packing material necessary for the manufacture of medical inputs, as well as antiseptics and disinfectants that serve to protect against the health emergency and combat the effects of the risk of coronavirus infection. Additionally, it develops the reform of Article 7 of Decree No. 29-2020, which was reformed by Article 9 of Decree No. 31-2020 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta on March 13, 2020 and the reform of Articles 6 and 7 of Agreement 227-2020 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta on March 20, 2020.

SCOPE OF APPLICATION.- The norms contained in this instruction are of public order, mandatory compliance and applicable throughout the national territory.

DEFINITIONS.- For the application of the Non-Subjection criterion to the payment of Sales Tax and customs duties on imports contained in Article 39 of Decree 33-2020, the following terms are defined: 1. ACCESSORIES: Any element that forms part of a system or machine, which serves for it to execute or not the function for which it is prepared. 2. ANTISEPTIC: Chemical products that allow the elimination of microorganisms that can cause different types of infections or prevent their appearance. 3. NON-SUBJECTION CRITERION: It occurs when the act performed by the taxpayer is not included in the legal budget that gives rise to the tax and customs obligation. 4. DISINFECTANT: Any substance or process that is used mainly on non-living objects to destroy germs, viruses, bacteria and other microbes that can cause infections and diseases. 5. MEDICAL EQUIPMENT: It is any device used to diagnose, cure or treat a disease or to prevent it. Instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, implant for in vitro use, software, material or other similar or related article, in human beings, for the diagnosis, prevention, control and treatment or relief of a disease. 6. INPUT: All goods or raw materials subject to assembly and transformation to produce new goods or a finished product. 7. MEDICAL INPUTS: Substance, article or material used for the diagnosis or prevention of diseases that for its use does not require energy sources. 8. PACKING MATERIAL: It is a container or wrapper that contains products temporarily mainly to group units of a product thinking of its handling, transport and storage. 9. RAW MATERIAL: Natural or artificial substance that is incorporated to transform products that will become consumption goods, intermediate products final products. 10. MACHINERY: That which has operating autonomy through a combustion engine and/or electrical energy, as well as manual or animal traction having a set of mobile and fixed parts allowing to take advantage of, regulate, direct and transform the energy it uses to perform work for specific purposes. 11. SPARE PARTS: They are replacement pieces or parts that are used to replace the originals in machines, accessories and/or equipment and implements of primary production and agroindustrial processing, that due to their daily use have suffered deterioration or breakdown. 12. CUSTOMS DUTY: These are levies and internal taxes that burden imports or exports of merchandise. SECOND TITLE CHAPTER I PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO IMPORTS

OF NON-SUBJECTION IN IMPORTS.- Any natural or legal person, including companies incorporated in the Free Trade Zones regime are not subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Customs Duties on Importation and may carry out importation activities of the goods described in Article 39 of Decree No. 33-2020, provided they carry out the manufacture of medical inputs, as well as antiseptics and disinfectants that serve to protect against the health emergency generated by COVID-19.

REQUIREMENTS IN IMPORTS.- In the importation of goods not subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Customs Duties on Importation, natural or legal persons, including persons incorporated in the Free Trade Zones Regime must present: a) Documentation in accordance with current customs legislation; and, b) Import authorization document issued by: The Health Regulatory Agency (ARSA), the National Service for Agricultural Food Safety and Innocence (SENASA), The International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health (OIRSA) and any other regulatory entity, as appropriate.

TRANSFER OF MERCHANDISE.- Companies incorporated in the Free Trade Zones Regime to transfer their merchandise must consider that:

• 1)

  Merchandise that enters the country with DUCA-T: The transporter must present to the customs authority of the Customs Administration of entry the supporting documentation that supports the DUCA-T with the purpose that said authority performs the transit closure control and in turn the initiation of transit towards the customs office of the Free Zone where the beneficiary company operates.

• 2)

  Merchandise that comes from the Central American area and is transmitted with DUCA-F: Companies in the Free Zones through their Customs Agent at the customs office of merchandise entry, must generate in the Automated System of Customs Revenue of Honduras (SARAH) a DUCA-D in accordance with the transmission carried out by the exporting country of the Region, this one having to rectify the declaration of merchandise described above to the internal transit regime with destination to the customs office of the Free Zone where the beneficiary company operates.

• 3)

  Merchandise entered into the country through export: Merchandise from abroad destined for a Free Zone company, will register through its Customs Agent in the Automated Customs Information System (SARAH) an internal transit DUCA-D destined for the customs office of the Free Zone where the beneficiary company operates.

• 4)

  Once the merchandise has arrived and the closure control has been generated by the Customs authority of the Free Zone, the Declaration of Entry to the Free Zone must be registered in accordance with the corresponding regime. CHAPTER II PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO LOCAL PURCHASES

OF NON-SUBJECTION IN LOCAL PURCHASES.- In local purchases of the goods described in this instruction, natural and legal persons, including those incorporated in the Free Trade Zones Regime are not subject to the payment of Sales Tax.

PROCEDURE FOR FREE ZONES.- In the case of companies incorporated in the Free Trade Zones Regime, for local purchases they may enter the goods to subject them to the corresponding manufacturing process in accordance with the following procedure: i. At the time of entering the merchandise, they must present a photocopy of the purchase invoice to the customs authority assigned to the customs office, who will perform a review of the merchandise by comparing it with the invoice, authorizing entry to the beneficiary company. ii. The customs personnel assigned in the free zone must conduct inspections of the beneficiary companies in order to verify that the raw materials, machinery, inputs, equipment, spare parts, accessories and packing materials that are being manufactured to produce medical inputs, as well as antiseptics and disinfectants that serve to protect will be used to address the health emergency generated by COVID-19. CHAPTER III OF THE APPLICATION OF THE NON-SUBJECTION CRITERION

RAW MATERIAL.- In the importation of goods Not Subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Customs Duties on Importation, for raw material it must be used in accordance with the following:

INPUTS.- In the importation of goods not subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Import Tariff Rights for inputs, the following must be used:

MACHINERY, EQUIPMENT, SPARE PARTS AND ACCESSORIES.- In the importation of goods not subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Import Tariff Rights for machinery, equipment, spare parts and accessories, the following must be used:

PACKAGING MATERIAL: In the importation of goods not subject to the payment of Sales Tax and Import Tariff Rights for packaging material, the following must be used:

CREATION OF PRECISION CODES.- The Honduran Customs Administration is instructed to create the necessary precision codes in the Customs Informatic System (SARAH) for the application of what is established in this Agreement.

TARIFF CLASSIFICATION.- From the list of merchandise included in this instructive, the commercial name or chemical composition must prevail as appropriate, provided that the general interpretive rules of tariff classification and amendments to the harmonized system are observed.

FACILITATION.- The Customs Administration must instruct personnel located in the different customs offices of the country in order to facilitate the prompt clearance of the products described in this Instructive.

AMENDMENT.- To amend Article 6 of Agreement 227-2020 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta on March 20, 2020, in the sense of modifying in the list of raw materials and inputs, the precision code of item 7) Sorbitol, which is established as follows:

AMENDMENT.- To amend Article 7 of Agreement 227-2020 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta on March 20, 2020 in the sense of modifying in the list of packages and containers, the precision code of item 3) Dispenser Caps, which is established as follows:

AUTHORIZATION TO DIFFERENT SPECIAL REGIMES.- Within the framework of the amendment to Article 7 of Decree No. 29-2020 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta on March 12, 2020, companies under the different special regimes are authorized to donate or sell one hundred percent (100%) of production within the national territory to public sector institutions provided it is to address the current COVID-19 pandemic, being able to donate or sell: a) Inputs; and, b) Medical Equipment

NOTIFICATION OF ACTIVITY CARRIED OUT IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGENCY.- Companies incorporated in the Free Zones and the different Special Regimes must notify through electronic technologies the Secretariat of State in the Office of Economic Development through the Productive Sectors Directorate regarding activities different from those authorized that they will be carrying out in the health emergency process due to COVID-19.

SALES IN THE NATIONAL MARKET.- In the case of companies subject to the different special regimes that carry out sales activities in the national territory to institutions of the public sector, they must do so in accordance with the procedure issued by the Customs Administration for this purpose.

FISCAL DOCUMENT TO SUPPORT THE SALE.- Sales resulting from the application of the preceding Article shall be documented with an invoice in accordance with the provisions established in the Regulation of the Billing Regime, Other Fiscal Documents and Tax Registry of Printing Companies.

EFFECTIVE DATE.- This Agreement is effective immediately upon its approval and must be published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". BE COMMUNICATED AND PUBLISHED, ROCIO IZABEL TABORA MORALES Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance MARTHA SUYAPA GUILLEN CARRASCO General Secretary by Law, according to Delegation Agreement No. 611-2019 ________ Customs Administration of Honduras CERTIFICATION NO. CUSTOMS-SG-065-2020 The undersigned, General Secretary at the National Level of the Customs Administration of Honduras, CERTIFIES Agreement No. CUSTOMS-DE-29-2020 dated April 20, two thousand twenty which literally states: "AGREEMENT NO. CUSTOMS - D E - 0 2 9 - 2 0 2 0 CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION OF HONDURAS. Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., April 20, 2020.- WHEREAS: That the Tax Code approved by Legislative Decree No. 170-2016, in its Article 195 created the Customs Administration as a decentralized entity of the Presidency of the Republic, with functional, technical, administrative and national security autonomy, with its own legal personality, responsible for the control, verification, inspection and collection of customs taxes, with authority and competence at the national level and with domicile in the Capital of the Republic. WHEREAS: That by means of Decree