Dong Nai Customs: Leading the Customs sector in tax debt control

Operational activity at Dong Nai Customs Department

Impressive figure

Regarding the state management of Customs in the two provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Thuan, thanks to the effective implementation of solutions to reform procedures, raising revenue, state budget revenue of Dong Nai Customs Department has been growing steadily over the years.

However, the tax debt incurred by the Department not only increase the amount but also tends to decrease. According to the regulations of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, tax debt rate is limited to 2%. In the period of 2007-2016, tax debt rate in Dong Nai Customs Department always meets this regulation well, the Department even control it under 1%.

Particularly, in 2007, the overdue debt at Dong Nai Customs Department was VND 7.4 billion, accounting for 0.21%; In 2008, this figure dropped to only VND 4.1 billion, accounting for 0.08%. Remarkably, in 2016, the tax debt rate in the Department was reduced to only 0.03% with VND 4.9 billion, while the total state revenue of the Department in 2016 reached VND 16,225 billion. Thus, while revenue increased by over 360% compared to 2007, the tax debt rate of the Department decreased by nearly 34%.

Such positive results were achieved because the Department has implemented well debt classification measures and urged companies which owed taxes and taken enforcement measures. Accordingly, the Department always complies with the regulations on the procedure of tax debts management, late debts payment and fines for import and export goods, issued together with Decision No.1074/QD-TCHQ dated 2/4/2014 of the General Department of Vietnam Customs. In addition, for small debts, leaders of branches work directly with companies and encourage them to pay taxes to finish these debts completely.

At the sub-departments, tax debt is monitored closely every day and classified according to classification criteria. Subsequently, every month, the sub-departments will report to the Import -Export Tax Division on the situation of tax debt settlement in the month, together with the plan for the next month, in which they list each specific task that has been done for tax debtors. Based on the reports of the sub-departments, the Import-Export Tax Division summarises results and proposes measures to solve problems in tax debts collection.

Accordingly, regarding problems related to agencies such as the Department of Judgment Enforcement, the People's Courts at all levels, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Taxation, the Management Board of Industrial Zones arise in the process of tax debt collection, the sub-departments report to Import-Export Tax Division to summarize and submit to leaders of the Department to work directly with the relevant agencies.

Additionally, sub-departments regularly review, collect information and business activities of enterprises in order to timely propose measures to avoid rising debts which are difficult to collect.

Accompany enterprises to develop

Besides the above-mentioned debt management and collection solutions, Dong Nai Customs Department’ s support must be mentioned. It is considered a "golden key" to many benefits such as increasing revenue in a sustainable way and reducing the tax debt of enterprises simultaneously.

Particularly, the Department always takes the initiative role in communication, grasp the difficulties and obstacles of enterprises and quickly support and propose agencies at all levels to solve such problems. Many enterprises find that it is easy to approach and reflect their problems to Dong Nai Customs Department. Because the enterprises can reflect at the Teams solving obstacles at Department and Sub-departments level, they also complain through the Department's website.

Being the first unit in the Customs sector building website from 2000 to provide information and policies on import and export, Customs procedures for enterprises, until now the website has attracted more than 10 million visits. The propaganda, information and Customs policy supply through Dong Nai TV and Dong Nai Newspaper have been maintained continuously for many years.

Besides, in addition to the regular dialogues held at the office of the Department, the Department also has issued hundreds of documents answering questions of businesses and sent reports on obstacles to the General Department of Vietnam Customs and agencies at all levels to propose measures to solve problems. So far, many questions of enterprises are solved such as energy efficiency check, deregulation of formaldehyde content in textile products ...

At the same time, Dong Nai Customs Department always focuses on the reform of administrative procedures, the modernization of Customs and the facilitation of export-import activities. In particular, application of DNa Customs Info, DNa Office system and many much private software of Dong Nai Customs Department have narrowed the gap between Customs and enterprises, making information exchange quickly and easily and saving costs effectively.

The Department has also effectively implemented the project on the modernization of electronic budget collection with the signed banks. Besides, Dong Nai Customs Department also focuses on investing in modern equipment for inspection, supervision and control such as 100 % of supervision by security cameras at ports, ICDs and the procedure locations in the province.

The Department improves inspection efficiency by container scanners for imported-exported goods and equipped and self-equipped technical facilities; improves the quality of information technology infrastructure to ensure compatibility, security, high security 24/24 and 24/7; continues to apply the quality management system ISO 9001:2008 in all management activities of the Department.