5,000 electronic positioning seals used for customs supervision

Effective use of positioning seals and container scanners is required

Officers of Hoanh Mo Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department) inspect goods. Photo: Q.H

Making use of e-positioning seals

Among 5,000 e-positioning seals provided by the GDVC to local customs departments across the country, Hai Phong Customs Department and HCM City Customs Department have received over 800 and 700 e-seals, respectively, bringing the total number of e-seals provided to each department to 1,000 e-seals.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau Customs Department have received 200 e-seals, bringing the total number provided seals to 150; Binh Dương, Dong Nai, Ha Noi, Tay Ninh and Bac Ninh Customs Departments have been equipped with 150, 150, 150, 200, 200 e-seals, increasing the total number of e-seals provided in each department to 300.

Seals have been handed over to other customs departments across the country.

The GDVC has requested local customs departments to instruct customs branches to operate the e-seals from the date of handover to supervise the transported goods subject to customs control.

Goods in transit, goods deposited in bonded warehouses, goods temporarily imported for re-export transported from the entry border gate to the storage sites or the exit border gate must use e-positioning seals for customs supervision. When all e-positioning seals are used, other customs seals will be used.

If the e-positioning seals have been used for the above goods, the rest will be used to supervise other goods subject to customs seals as per regulations in Article 50 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 amended and supplemented in Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance.

The country’s top customs department has asked local customs department to strictly perform customs management and supervision for the goods under the process issued together with Decision 138/QD-TCHQ dated January 21, 2020 of the Director General of Vietnam Customs and relevant documents.

At the same time, local customs branches use the e-positioning seal for the shipments transported to the customs units managing the seal as per regulations in Point g, Clause 3, Article 7, Decision 138. After three working days from the date of receipt of the seal, if there are no goods, the branches must return the seal by express delivery service.

In addition, the GDVC has requested the Customs IT and Statistics Department to chair and coordinate with the Customs Control and Supervision Department and contractors to instruct the use of the e-seal system and e-positioning seals for local customs departments and put the seals into customs supervision.

Through the instruction on the use of the e-seal, the GDVC has recorded proposals of local customs departments to perfect a decision amending Decision 138/QD-TCHQ to ensure strict compliance with actual performance and legal regulations.

Improving efficiency of customs supervision

The development of current e-positioning seal management software which is copyrighted software, aims to improve the efficiency of customs supervision for goods transported by container and high-risk goods during transportation.

Containers and cargos that are monitored by the GPS-based e-seal system are controlled closely in real time or close to real time.

The e-positioning seal management software system has functions including the management of e-positioning seal, functions serving users such as managing information about routes and locations; setting and managing alerts; functions of reporting and statistics.

However, to meet the needs of customs operations, the software does not operate completely independently, there needs to be information exchange with other systems of Customs. Therefore, the e-positioning seal management software system also has the function of sharing and exchanging information and data between the GPS-based e-seal system with other customs systems to improve the efficiency of customs control in a comprehensive manner.