Can Tho Customs: Launching solutions for trade facilitation

Tay Do Customs Branch - Can Tho Customs Department inspects exported shipment of yellowtail catfish fillet Photo: Đăng Nguyên

Can Tho Customs Department has promoted trade facilitation and removed obstacles for enterprises in production, imports and exports.

Implementing Directives No. 479/CT-TCHQ dated February 6th, 2023 of General Department of Vietnam Customs on synchronous and drastic implementation of trade facilitation solutions, improving the efficiency of state management, loss prevention in revenue collection of 2023, Can Tho Customs Department has developed and launched a series of solutions to accomplish tasks from the beginning of 2023.

According to the statistics in the first two months of 2023, there were nearly 200 turns of businesses carrying out procedures at Can Tho Customs Department with over 12,300 import and export declarations, a decrease of more than 11% compared to the same period in 2022; import-export turnover reached nearly US$540 million, reducing 16% compared to the same period in 2022.

In 2023, Can Tho Customs Department was assigned to collect VND 2,550 billion by the Minister of Finance. This is a difficult task when, currently, enterprises importing key products do not have an import plan and there are no major investment projects for importing machinery and equipment in the management area.

In order to complete the task of revenue collection, Director of Can Tho Customs Department requested the affiliated units to focus resources on drastically implementing tasks from the beginning of the year.

The leader of Can Tho Customs Department said that the Department would work quickly with import-export enterprises in the area, especially those that contribute large tax revenues to capture information on export and import activities in 2023.

At the same time, the unit would learn about the difficulties and obstacles of enterprises to promptly guide and remove them. Furthermore, working with departments and sectors in the area to grasp the implementation of investment projects in order to promptly guide and support carrying out procedures for importing machinery and equipment to create fixed assets. Effectively deploying coordination on revenue collection through the Treasury and commercial banks, creating favorable conditions for the business community to pay taxes and other payables into the state budget anytime and anywhere.

Next, Can Tho Customs Department determined that it was necessary to quickly implement trade facilitation solutions in the management area. The Department has requested units to pay attention to organizing partner activities so that the business community and stakeholders can participate in the process of reform, modernization and digital transformation in the Customs sector and improve voluntary compliance with customs law for the business community; at the same time, promptly solving difficulties and problems to support when carrying out customs procedure.

Can Tho Customs Department also set a requirement for affiliated units to create conditions for the business community and related parties to understand new policies and laws on customs; participate in completing customs policies, management methods, service quality of customs authorities, and pilot programs to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws; strengthen Customs-Enterprise cooperation to contribute to improving the management and law enforcement capacity of each party.

Mrs. Ngo Thi Thu Hien, Deputy Director in charge of import and export documents - Minh Phu Hau Giang Seafood Joint Stock Company said: “Besides holding dialogues and working directly with businesses, Can Tho Customs Department needs to continue to maintain and promote the effectiveness of hotlines, zalo, email to promptly receive recommendations of businesses, so most problems arising in the course of customs procedure are quickly removed. On the other hand, new documents and policies are also disseminated through these channels, so businesses can catch them early and execute them more effectively.”

Regarding this issue, in 2023, Can Tho Customs Department will implement law enforcement supervision following the direction of modernizing the channel of customs law enforcement supervision on the basis of the application of IT solutions. Expanding supervision channels in an increasingly convenient way so that people and businesses have more options to participate in customs law enforcement supervision.

In the context that economic conditions and import and export production activities in the area are still facing many difficulties, the solutions of trade facilitation which are being quickly deployed at the beginning of the year, Can Tho Customs Department is trying its best to successfully complete the assigned tasks.