Customs Assessment Department needs to implement right functions and duties

The meeting with General Director. Photo H.Nuh

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Huan, Director of the Customs Assessment Department, said: “According to Decision 65/2015/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister and Decision 1388/QD-BTC of the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Assessment Department has mainly to perform checking standards, quality and quarantine, hygiene standards of food safety for exported and imported goods as prescribed by law. However, due to the new Customs Assessment Department being in a transition period from a business unit to a State management unit (from August 1^st 2016), the department will continue to perform its analysis functions in order to support the work of classification.

Speaking at the meeting, Director General Nguyen Van Can praised the results of the Customs Assessment Department (when they were named Analysis and Classification Centre) achieved in actively advising the General Department of Customs to apply codes on goods that contribute to reduce loss of the State budget, team building, etc.

However, compared to the requirement in Customs management, since switching to the Customs Assessment Department, they have not complied with the role and functions under the provisions of the Customs Law 2014, Decision 65/2015 / QD-TTg and Decision 1388 / QD-BTC.

The Customs Assessment Department will have to perform management functions, advising and implementing accreditation, inspection, analysis and classification of goods. Furthermore, implementating guidance, direction, inspection and recommending solutions. Regarding classification, the Customs Assessment Department will coordinate with the Export-Import Tax Department to perform more effectively. This is new function in comparision to the previous.

In previous years, the units have been accustomed to doing professional work purely on technical analysis and classification. Thus, in the future, the Customs Assessment Department needs to change its working methods, ensuring proper role management in Customs work on accreditation and defining the nature of goods.

Therefore, to implement effectively, the Director General Nguyen Van Can said that the Customs Assessment Department should deploy each functional content and tasks that the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs regulations. Besides that, the unit should initiate and collaborate with other units in the field to offload classification samples which are sent for analysis, which is widespread and unnecessary.

On the other hand, the Customs Assessment Department should be active to assess the status of machinery, equipment and so on. In particular, they should have linked plans and hire an external inspection agency to examine items that they cannot do. Also, advising the overall construction process in the proper role of State management in inspecting goods quality, etc.