Adjust target of revenue collection for 20 local Customs Departments

To strictly comply with the directives of the Government and the Ministry of Finance, strivedto exceed the target of revenue collection assigned by the Ministry of Finance, based on the amount of revenue collected in nine months, the General Department of Vietnam Customs increased the target of revenue collection in 2019 for 14 units and reduction for six units. The remaining 15 units kept the targets as assigned.

Specifically, Hai Phong Customs Department increased from 53,600 billion VNDto 63,000 billionVND; Lang Son Customs Department from 2,920 billion VNDto 3,400 billionVND; Quang Ninh Customs Department increased from 9,700 billion VNDto 10,000 billionVND; Khanh Hoa Customs Department from 3,200 billion VNDto 3,500 billionVND; Can Tho Customs Department from 2,350 billion VNDto 2,500 billionVND; Ha Nam Ninh Customs Department increased from 7,000 billion VNDto 7,500 billionVND; Tay Ninh Customs Department increased from 1,400 billion VNDto 1,450 billionVND; Quang Ngai Customs Department from 2,500 billion VNDto 3,000 billionVND; Binh Dinh Customs Department from 1,200 billion VNDto 1,230 billionVND; Quang Tri Customs Department from 400 billion VNDto 480 billionVND; Ha Giang Customs Department increased from 280 billion VND to 285 billion VND; Cao Bang Customs Department from 135 billion VNDto 165 billionVND; Kien Giang Customs Department increased from 500 billion VNDto 550 billionVND; An Giang Customs Department increased from 460 billion VNDto 500 billionVND.

Lang Son Customs officials checked imported goods. Photo: H.Nụ

Six units were adjusted to reduce their targets including: Dong Nai Customs Department 19,500 billion VNDto 18,600 billionVND; Da Nang Customs Department from 4,100 billion VNDto 4,000 billionVND; Nghe An Customs Department from 1,788 billion VNDto 1,700 billionVND; Thua Thien Hue Customs Department from 570 billion VNDto 554 billionVND; Dak Lak Customs Department from 880 billion VNDto 858 billion VNDand Gia Lai-Kon Tum Customs Department from 321 billion VNDto 310 billionVND.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs requested the provincial Customs Departments continue effectively implementing Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP of the Government dated January 1, 2019 on main tasks and solutions for implementing socioeconomic development plan and State Budget Estimation in 2019; Resolution 02/NQ-CP; Decision 2026/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on improving the capacity and efficiency of specialised inspection activities for import and export goods and the Resolution 35/2016/NQ-CP of the Governmenton supporting and developing enterprises to 2020; Directive 723/CT-TCHQ dated January 30, 2019 on the implementation of the revenue collection task.

At the same time, focusing on reviewing and grasping the situation of tax debt; categorise groups of recoverable debt,irrecoverable debts, debts waiting for exemption, reduction or deletion; each debt group should have a detailed assessment of each debt by each declaration, each enterprise owing debt; the directors of the provincial Customs Departments should direct units to continue implementing debt recovery and handling measures guided by the General Department of Vietnam Customs in managing tax debts and other revenues for import and export goods; directing the debt recovery group to immediately implement measures to urge debt recovery and handling, ensuring the debt arising at December 31, 2019 is lower than the debt arising at December 31, 2018 and this is the basis for setting criteria to consider task completion in 2019 for the units.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs also requested local units focus on reviewing and checking conditions for tax refund and declaration of tax refund for cases of tax refund in accordance with regulations. In particular, focus on checking cases of tax refund via C/O of petroleum products, automobile spare parts as prescribed in Decree 125/2017/ND-CP based on the request of taxpayers, units issued tax refund decisions and make refund orders sent to the State Treasury. If the taxpayer was entitled to a tax refund but still owes tax, late payment and other revenues, the tax refund should be offset against the outstanding amount.

Besides that, the units need to strengthen the work of post-clearance audit, inspection and fight against smuggling and trade frauds. In particular, focusing on checking the value, code and origin for goods with high tax rates, large import turnover and high import frequency.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs stressed that the year of 2019 was the year of import tariff when the import tax rate under the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) continued to sharply reduce, the CPTPP agreement officially takes effect, so the units needed to focus on human resources for checking conditions of goods subjected to special preferential tax rates under FTAs, of that, focusing on checking C/O, proactively verifying and clarifying cases of suspected fraudulent origin , avoid profiteering, trade frauds causing loss to the State budget.