Coordinating to implement quick cargo clearance for transit goods

HCM CIty Customs chaired the meeting with enterprises. Photo: T.H

Follow the rules

According to Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Manager of Saigon Port Area 1 Customs Branch, from the beginning of 2020 to August 31, the Saigon Port Area 1 Customs Branch has completed the procedures for 30,627 transit customs declarations, with quantities of more than 70,000 cargo containers.

In recent years, the type of transporting transit goods through Cat Lai port has been very large. It is about 300-400 containers per day on average. So it has been a concern of the Saigon port area 1 Customs Branch and implemented clearance procedure for businesses in accordance with regulations.

Based on the provisions of the Vietnam-Cambodia Transit Agreement and Vietnamese law, goods in transit through Vietnamese territory are subject to customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision. The place of implementing customs procedures is the first border gate of imports and the last border gate for exports.

Customs procedures for goods in transit are carried out in the form of independent transport on the VNACCS/VCIS System and the E-Customs System. Goods in transit through Vietnam must be subject to the supervision of Customs authorities during the entire time in transit, entry and exit to prescribed border gates.

Goods in transit must be sealed by customs, except in cases where customs seals are not sealed and must ensure goods are completely intact during transit through Vietnamese territory.

For goods transiting via inland waterways, the means of transport must have a tracking device.

According to regulations on unsealed cases, goods in transit from Cat Lai border gate for import to the border gate of export at Vinh Xuong, Thuong Phuoc, Binh Ba by inland waterway are not subject to customs seal.

The Customs authority should not seal goods in case goods were still sealed by the carrier. To know if the goods are still in the carrier's seal, customs official must conduct seal inspection before the goods are unloaded from the container yard to the barge to transport to Cambodia.

However, in recent years, some subjects have taken advantage of form of transit to violate the customs law, such as transporting prohibited goods, contraband goods, intentionally consuming transit goods in the Vietnamese market and cutting seal for exchanging fraudulently goods in transit.

From the beginning of July up to now, the Customs Supervision and Enforcement Team, the Saigon Port Area 1 Customs Branch has detected and sanctioned 19 cases of violations of transit goods, with the acts of making incorrect customs declaration and not implementing customs declaration. These cases were handled as administrative violations and one case was not allowed to continue transit procedures and forced to re-export goods out of Vietnam.

Coordinate to solve problems

Before the reflection of some shipping lines recently, they had a lot of backlogged containers in transit that could not clear due to conducting inspections of the carrier's seal, at the meeting held by the HCM City Customs Department, participants said that it was necessary to coordinate to solve problems for businesses.

Nguyen Phuong Nam, Deputy Director General of Saigon New Port Corporation, said that recently, realising the difficulties of enterprises at Cat Lai port and other ports, Saigon New Port has worked with the Customs authority to provide support solutions. Recently, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has issued guidance documents. The principle of port, goods in the container and seal must be completely intact. Containers that have lost their seal or have no seal are all made a record, and the wrong seal due to the process of transporting like collision is a normal practice.

Cat Lai port still has 1,800 teus (equivalent to 1,500 containers) in transit. According to the Customs authority, most backlogged containers were caused by enterprises that have not opened customs declarations.

A representative of Saigon Newport Corporation proposed, checking the seal and loading containers on board, the port enterprise could do it. If detected incorrectly, it would report to the customs authority.

Chairing the meeting, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Nguyen Huu Nghiep said to facilitate businesses, it was necessary to strengthen the coordination of stakeholders.

Saigon New Port Corporation was the unit managing and exploiting the container and for transit goods, it must have a separate management yard, so it should not be confused with the general import and export goods.

For shipping lines, when the ship enters the country, shipping lines should report the correct seal number and avoid repairing many times. If mistakes are detected, they must report early to the customs authority; when seal inspection is conducted, the best location must be chosen to not affect the clearance time of the enterprise.

Customs officials in charge of supervision must perform duty 24/7. If there are outside office hours, enterprises should notify in advance the time for the Customs authority to arrange customs officials to carry out procedures for enterprises.

Before 8 o'clock, conducting loading and unloading goods, the port authority should notify the plan to the customs authority; customs branch should work based on the number of goods and arrange officials to carry out procedures for enterprises, avoid impacting the goods transportation of enterprises. The place of seal inspection should be decided appropriately by the customs branch in coordination with the port authority.

For shipping units, work with ports and businesses to immediately handle backlogged goods. When enterprises open a customs declaration, the customs authority would immediately release the goods for the enterprise.