Clarifying trick of “making prices” for vehicles transporting exported agricultural products in Lang Son

Accordingly, the Police Investigation Agency has prosecuted the accused and temporarily detained Lam Van Huong (39 years old) and Nong Tuan Anh (30 years old) both of which are working in Administrative Management of Social Order Team of Cao Loc district, Lang Son province, due to “accepting bribes” and Dinh Van Thin (43 years old, from Mai Pha, Lang Son City) due to “bribery”.

According to the investigation, taking advantage of congestion at the border gate, the suspects colluded to find vehicles that had been granted a ticket to export goods but goods were damaged, changing the head of the container, in order to bring new cars to replace old ones with a price of VND100-300 million/car.

Thin hooked up with Huong and Tuan Anh, who were assigned the task of writing tickets, numbering the order of vehicles entering and leaving the channel, waiting for customs clearance in the area to exchange tickets and drove the truck straight to the export border gate.

The digital border gate platform will help to reduce the pressure of vehicle congestion at the border gate. Photo: Danh Tùng

Regarding the actual cost for a container truck transporting agricultural products to be paid when clearing to China, talking to reporters, a representative of Huu Nghi Border Gate Customs Branch (Lang Son Customs Department) said when exporting Vietnamese agricultural products to China, enterprises must have a customs declaration and pay a fee of VND20,000. In addition, enterprises must pay the fee of Lang Son province and the fee of using the infrastructure of VND800,000/container. Besides the above two fees, at the border gate, there is no "lawmaker" in charge of collecting money. The unit will check, verify and serve the internal management of the Customs Branch, if any, the unit will handle it strictly.

“As for export duty, agricultural products are not currently subject to export duty, so enterprises do not have to pay any tax. As for the fees of Xuan Cuong parking lot, the company will collect fees and costs of the transit driver,” the representative of Huu Nghi Customs said.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi My Huong, Deputy General Director of Xuan Cuong Company, said this company was not related to the "lawmaker". For export trucks, Xuan Cuong Company only collects charges of the yard. For direct export trucks, the fee was also collected according to the prescribed list of prices of the province. Specifically, the fee after the first 24 hours was VND200,000/container, if there is a night stay fee, but the truck is parked in Xuan Cuong parking lot, there would be no other costs. A full-time driver would negotiate a price with the owner, and Xuan Cuong did not interfere with that price.

Thus, at Huu Nghi international border gate, there are four forces: Customs, Border Gate Economic Authority, Border Defence, Quarantine and an enterprise that was Xuan Cuong Company. The total cost of procedures for a container of agricultural products to export to China through Huu Nghi international border gate is VND1,220,000.

According to a representative of the Dong Dang - Lang Son border gate economic authority, the unit found that taking advantage of congestion at the border gate, some individuals involved in export services had profited. Therefore, if shippers and drivers work with reputable customs brokers, there would be no situation of "making laws" at the border gate.

Faced with this situation, the People's Committee of Lang Son province has issued a document directing and assigning the Provincial Police to chair and coordinate with relevant agencies to inspect, verify and clarify information about "lawmakers". The results would be reported to the People's Committee of Lang Son province, if violations are detected, they will be strictly handled according to regulations.

Notably, the People's Committee of Lang Son province directed the Lang Son Customs Department, Dong Dang - Lang Son border gate economic authority and related agencies to regularly inform the owners of goods and drivers. When bringing goods to the border gate for import and export procedures, they must choose credible customs brokers and professional import-export service providers to avoid being taken advantage of and profiteering.

Immediately after the incident, two officers of the Administrative Management of Social Order Team were prosecuted, the Cao Loc District Police changed the chief of the post at this yard. Accordingly, currently, the work of writing the ticket, monitoring vehicles entering and leaving are all coordinated by the forces, with mutual supervision, regularly updated and reported to superiors to control the situation.