Disturbance of "personal effects" – Part 2: Route of "personal effects"

	Hanoi Customs Department handled 370 violation cases in 6 months
	Over 1,100 air conditioners inside 3 smuggled containers
	Arrested a 76-year-old woman concealed 3 kg heroin in bottles of fish sauce

Weight-Loss Supplements originated from Thai Lan seized by the Customs in April 2017 at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: provided by the Anti-Smuggling Department)

"Personal effects" rings

According to a Customs reporter, a large amount of "personal effects" was carried to Vietnam in the baggage of passengers on entry by the airline. Besides, many perpetrator groups organize to collect goods and gather them at one place oversea, then transport to Vietnam by the airline or express delivery service or post service.

An experienced Customs officer in anti-smuggling on aviation said: Recently, airline passengers on entry have taken advantage of the allowances for baggage not for travel but for commercial purposes. According to the Prime Minister's Decision No. 31/2015 / QD-TTg on allowances for baggage, movables, gifts and donations that qualify imported duty exemption or are not subject to excise tax and Value Added Tax for passengers on entry are goods carried along the trip and not on the list of goods prohibited from import, suspended from import or subject to conditional import with the total value in excess of 10 million vnd.

Taking advantage of the above regulation, a closed transport network of goods was formed with the connection of the domestic and foreign perpetrators. In the home country, smuggling employers hire unemployed persons to exit and enter many times in a fixed route to carry goods oversea and vice versa. Overseas, after the goods being collected in a large amount, the perpetrators shall divide and pack into several pieces named by many people to avoid the State management agency.

Each package contains many kinds of items: medicines, food, milk, clothes, footwear, bath gel, shampoo, perfume ...), which shall be declared a price of less than 10 million for tax exemption. If being checked by the functional forces, the perpetrators shall find all ways to avoid or not provide vouchers and purchase invoices. In cases, perpetrators also deliberately remove the label and mark of goods, causing difficulties for the force in charge in determining the value and type of goods. On the domestic market, the smuggling employers shall collect the good, then re-label and sell them publicly at the shops.

Recently, the Customs has discovered many cases of transportation of cosmetics from Korea to Vietnam. Through investigation, the perpetrators confessed that cosmetics are usually illegal bought from abroad, even nearly expired goods, defective goods. These goods are much cheaper than genuine goods and bring big profits when selling in Vietnam. However, these goods are often not inspected on quality and have not got written evidence on genuine goods.

Typically, the case that 32 pieces of luggage were inspected at the baggage carousel of Noi Bai International Airport, the owner has run away. A number of goods was transported on a flight from Korea to Vietnam via Noi Bai International Airport on 17 February 2017. Named on 31 pieces of luggage including Moonwoesoon: 6 pieces of luggage; Mac / AnhTuan: 10 pieces of luggage; Luu / ThiThu: 9 pieces of luggage; Nguyen / AnhTung: 5 pieces of luggage; Kim / Yes: 1 piece of luggage; and 1 piece of baggage missing passenger boarding pass number and passenger name. Through the inspection, the Customs force detected that 32 pieces of luggage contained cosmetics with a total weight of nearly 1 ton.

Recently, through online surveillance, the Customs forces have discovered and handled the case of transporting more than 200,000 beauty supplement and slimming pills carried from Thailand to Vietnam without invoices or documents of origin. More seriously, these drugs were packed in white plastic bags and not labeled by the manufacturer.

Besides, it does not exclude "personal effects" carried to Vietnam in hand languages of flight attendants and flight crew, although Decision 31 stipulates: “Regular inbound passengers in accordance with Clause 5 Article 58 of the Government’s Decree No 08/2015/ND-CP dated 21 January 2015 shall not be entitled to luggage allowance of tax exemption stipulated in Clause 1, 2, 3 and 5 of this Article for each entry , but they shall be entitled to 01 (one) tax exemption per 90-day entry of their baggage carried within the stipulated allowance”. The regular inbound persons include: Aircraft operators and international flight attendants. However, the implementation is still suspended, through monitoring, the competent forces discovered that flight attendants and flight crews of some airlines have not strictly followed the regulations and are not closely managed.

"Personal effects" are fake goods

Grasping the consumer’s favorite on foreign goods is a good opportunity for organizations and individuals to make fake goods in name of "personal effects". The competent forces exposed the counterfeiting tricks of foreign goods right from home country to mix with "personal effects". Both above goods are similar on the lack of origin written evidence.

The case happened in Viet Nam HMN Slim Trading Company Limited (referred as Slim Company) located at Phan Trong Tue, Hanoi (in August 2016) is an example. The perpetrators abused the looseness of law and trust of consumers for goods originated from foreign countries (such as the US, Japan, Canada, Australia and The EU., etc) to manufacture and trade fake goods with a large amount including goods consumed in name of "personal effects". After an investigation, the Customs discovered and seized many fake goods. As result, 32,855 supplement capsule boxes in Slim brand, more than 4,205 kg labels and stamps and 1,180 box covers of all kinds were seized. After examining 14 samples, the National Institute for Food Control announced that 14 of 14 samples failed to meet the quality criteria as those declared or printed on labels; in which 12 of 14 samples from 1 to 6 quality criteria or technical characteristics that make up the value of use and use of the product were less than 70% according to the confirmation of Food Safety Department at Document No. 5846 / ATTP-TTr dated 08 September 2016.

The regulation on personal effects as alcohol and cigars amended VCN – The General Department of Vietnam Customs is gathering comments from people about the draft Circular ...

"Personal effects" are collected from foreign countries and are not inspected on quality, even are counterfeited. Therefore, when they are sold in the market, consumers shall suffer from damage to health, economy, and State shall suffer from loss of tax revenues.