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Customs officers of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department insepct imported goods. Photo: T.H

Strong impact from the epidemic

According to statistics, by the end of March 8, the whole Customs sector collected and contributed VND 54,527 billionto the State budget, equal to 16.13percent of the estimate (VND 338,000 billion), down 8.69 percent compared to 2019. Particularly, in February, the Customs sector collected VND 23,951 billion, lower than January (VND 26,019 billion).

If the Customs collected VND 1,458 billion on average per day in the first two months of 2019, it only collected VND 1,308 billion on average per day in the first two months of thisyear. According to the assigned estimate of VND 338,000 billion, Customs must collect nearly VND 28,167 billion on average per day. However, the Customs revenue reached VND 23,951 billion on average in the first two months, lower than VND 3,317 billion compared to the average level in each month to complete the estimate.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the decrease in Customs revenue is due to the effect of the Covid-19 epidemic, with almost all import and export turnover of major commodities such as machinery, equipment, iron, steel, petroleum products and ore decreasing gradually. Specifically, the imported petroleum products in the first two months fell 20 percent in volume and 22.8 percent in value; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts decreased by 3.7 percent compared to 2019; iron and steel decreased 18.5 percent compared to 2019; CBU cars imported in February decreased sharply by59.9 percent in volume and 57.2 percent in value compared to 2019.Export items such as crude oil and ores also sharply decreasedin quantity and value.

If the outbreak of Covid-19 continues, it will greatly affect the production, import and export activities and Customs revenues.

Take the initiative in revenue collection

In the context that the Covid-19 epidemic continues, at the recent meeting of the General Department of Vietnam Customs to evaluate the results of performance in February and deploy tasks in March, Director General of Vietnam CustomsNguyen Van Can required the units to closely monitor the state budget collection; assess the impact on the state budget revenue of the implementation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), especially the CPTPP and EVFTA; research, propose and implement solutions to increase revenue and prevent losses.

Particularly, Director General Nguyen Van Can asked units to proactively monitor and assess the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and the implementation of international integration commitments affecting state budget revenue, to report and propose leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Ministry of Finance.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs requested the provincial and municipal Customs Departments to grasp revenues, especially import and export with China, closely followthe import and export activities of enterprises, especially enterprises implementing import and export activities with China, the exports of agricultural product, the imports of raw material, supplies, machinery and equipmentto promptly report to serve state budget management.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs will focus on reviewing and grasping the tax debt of the provincial and municipal customs departments; classifying groups of recoverable tax debt and irrecoverable tax debt. Regularly monitoring and urging units and providing solutions to recover tax debts in line with the reality; monthly and quarterly monitoring the collection and handling of tax debts.