Authorized economic operators are exempted from post clearance audit at customs office

AEO implement procedures at Saigon port area 1 Customs Branch. Photo: T.Hoà

This is new content added to Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree 08/2015/ND-CP.

According to the drafting committee, Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP and Article 78 of the Customs Law provides for three cases of post clearance audit, however, excluding AEO. In fact, enterprises are subjected to post clearance audit at customs offices for export and import declarations within 60 days, so situations have occurred where many enterprises have been subjected to post clearance audit many times and continuously.

On the other hand, the preferential regime is enterprise management, not management of each shipment, and post clearance audit within 60 days is the management of import goods. AEOs are enterprises that have been inspected, appraised, well-respected by the customs authorities, and have self-control mechanisms to maintain compliance with the law. Accordingly, if the exemption from post clearance at the customs office is not provided, it may lead to multiple inspections.

Therefore, Decree No. 59/2018 / ND-CP adds Clause 4, Article 9 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP to priority exemption of enterprises at customs offices, except for cases specified in Clause 1, Article 78 of the Customs Law. That is, only post clearance audit at customs offices when there are signs of violation of customs law and other provisions of law related to export and import management. This issue is reflected in Clause 6, Article 1 of the Decree.

The above regulations aim to ensure preferential policies for AEO in line with international practices.