Amending regulation on exporting goods from bonded warehouse to ensure supervision

Bonded warehouse at Bac Thanh Long Industrial Park (Hanoi). Photo: Ngọc Linh

Arising shortcomings

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the current law on bonded warehouses allows goods to be kept for a certain period of time, when the time limit is expired, goods must be taken out of the warehouse or if goods owners or bonded warehouse owners want to destroy goods, they have to carry out procedures. However, in the process of carrying out customs procedures, the task of supervision at bonded warehouses has arisen many cases when the goods have expired at the bonded warehouse but cannot be exported, or have gone through procedures for delivery out from bonded warehouses to transport to export border gate but cannot actually export. At present, there are no specific regulations on the competency to extend or procedures for extending goods with a period of storage but have been released from bonded warehouses or handling measures for goods that are exceeding time for sending goods to bonded warehouses, or the process of goods destruction at the request of enterprises.

In addition, there are some service activities performed in bonded warehouses with risks of trade fraud, changing origin of goods and changing labels of goods. So there is a need to clarify which service can done and can’t be done in a bonded warehouse.

Besides that, when carrying out customs procedures for goods deposited into bonded warehouse for export, currently they only declare transportation, which leads to some shortcomings in customs inspection and supervision due to customs declarants did not declare detailed information of goods, but only selected a few items that account for a large proportion of the export shipment. It is necessary to amend regulations on procedures for exporting goods from bonded warehouses to ensure inspection and supervision of customs authority.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs proposed to amend and supplement a number of regulations to ensure consistency among legal documents such as a specific time limit for storage and handling directions, on liquidation and destruction of goods, about "done and not done" services in bonded warehouses and on procedures for the export of goods from bonded warehouses.

Disassemble with specific regulations

Supplementing the provision that does not allow processing, manufacturing and assembly activities to changes HS codes, origin of goods in bonded warehouses as stipulated in Article 83. Specifically, in the draft decree amending and supplementing Article 83 as follows: “Article 83. Services to be provided in bonded warehouses: the owner of the goods that deposited goods into the bonded warehouse would directly perform or authorise to the bonded warehouse owner or a customs broker that performs the following services for goods deposited into bonded warehouses:

1. Reinforcing, packing; classification of goods, maintenance of goods.

2. Dividing, packing and assembling container shipments.

3. Taking samples of goods to serve management or carcustoms clearance.

4. Transferring ownership of goods.

5. Particularly for specialised bonded warehouses containing chemicals, petrol and oil, if they meet the requirements of State management on customs and relevant specialised State management requirements, they may prepare and convert types of goods.

The performance of the services referred to in this article does not include processing, manufacturing or assembling activities or other simple operations that alter the original status quo (product name information, HS codes, specifications, attributes and origin) of the goods. The Ministry of Finance guided the implementation of services in bonded warehouses”.

The draft also amends Clause 4, adds Clauses 5, 6, 7, Article 86 in the direction of specifically guiding procedures for destruction or liquidation of broken, damaged, deteriorated or over-quality consignments. The expiry date is incurred during storage or at the export border gate. Providing guidance on the handling and time limit for handling goods exceeding time of depositing into the bonded warehouse, but the goods owner or the person authorised by the owner of the goods does not take goods out of the bonded warehouse.

At the same time, instructing to establish entire ownership for people if the owner of the goods declares to give up or performs acts proving the abandonment of goods stored in bonded warehouses. Specifies the time for goods to be kept at the export border gate after they have been taken out of the bonded warehouse and subject to the management mechanism in case of failure to export.

And amend Clause 2, Article 88 as follows: “Goods from a bonded warehouse taken to a foreign country or into the inland or a free trade zone, or the owner or an authorised person must go through customs procedures at the Customs branch managing bonded warehouse”.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the amendment and supplementation of regulations on bonded warehouse management must ensure that enterprises comply with the provisions of law, specifically on storage period of goods and permitted services and is not allowed in bonded warehouses; customs officials clearly define the competence, functions and tasks of implementation. Facilitating businesses to deposit goods into bonded warehouses without having problems with storage time.