Japanese enterprise poised to lose thousands of dollars over fee dispute

March 25, 2016 | 16:41

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Japanese confectionary producer Tango Candy Co., Ltd. is looking back on a hard week. Stagnating manufacturing in the company’s factory in Tan Duc industrial park (IP) in the southern province of Long An due to a conflict on fee payments is making the company lose $15,000 per day.

On March 17, Tan Duc IP blocked the entrance and cut off the water supply of the Tango Candy factory because of the company’s delay in paying infrastructure fees.

According to Tan Duc Joint Stock Company’s communication director Tran Duong, Tan Duc has recently requested enterprises operating in the park to retroactively pay an infrastructure fee of more than VND10,000 ($0.45) a square metre per year for the past three years.

Accordingly, Tango Candy must pay a total fee of VND255 million ($11,368), which the company promptly refused.

Duong added that on March 16, Tan Duc sent Tango Candy a notice about cutting off the water supply due to the company’s failure to pay.

“Companies failing to pay the fee will have their water and power supplies cut off. We have the right to do so, because infrastructure maintenance fees were previously agreed upon. Furthermore, we would like to create equal footing for enterprises who paid the fees on schedule,” Duong commented.

Tango Candy complained that the fee was unreasonably high and numerous companies located in the park had refused to pay such a high fee.

According to Tango Candy’s director Tango Hirosuke, although the delay on manufacturing generates a loss of $15,000 per day, the company will definitely not pay the unreasonable fee, as a matter of principle.

Previously, representatives of Tango Candy and Tan Duc held several working sessions to discuss the infrastructure fee, but failed to reach a compromise.

There are 153 companies operating inside the park, 66 of which are foreign businesses. More than 30 companies have refused to pay the fee.

By By Hong Son

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