Enterprises should retain dossier for inspection and post-clearance audit

Customs officer of Ninh Binh Customs (Ha Nam Ninh Customs Department) guides enterprise to implement the procedure Photo: Hong Nu

The reader asked “my company is a foreign company relating to export and import operation. For import procedure, what documents are retained in the import-export division? Is it mandatory to retain original document?. If I import goods with CIF price, Is the insurance dossier submitted as required for inspection by the Customs? Which will missing documents be subject to administrative penalties or which circulars stipulate on the retaining post-clearance dossier and administrative penalty?

Answering on this issue, according to the Bac Ninh Customs Department, pursuant to Clause 5, Article 3 of Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015, of the Ministry of Finance stipulates: “5. The declarant shall retain dossiers prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article and accounting books for a sufficient period of time prescribed by regulations of law on accounting. Besides, the declarant must retain other documents related to exported or imported goods for 05 years, including transport documents of exported goods, packing lists, technical documents, documents related to the quotas for inward processing and manufacturing of goods for export.

The declarant must keep original copies of the said documents (unless they have been submitted to the Customs authority). Digital documents shall be kept in the digital form or converted into paper documents as prescribed by regulations of law on electronic transactions.

Accordingly, although there are no specific provisions on that the enterprise must retain insurance documents when importing goods with CIF price, the insurance document is one of the documents relating to export and import goods. Therefore, the Company should retain it for the inspection and post-clearance audit of the Customs (if any).

Comments for draft revised Circular No. 38 frankly received VCN - The General Department of Customs held four conferences to collect opinions of local Customs and ...

Related to penalty of administrative violations, for violations on retaining the dossiers: Clause 7, Article 1 of Decree No.45/2016/ND-CP of May 26, 2016 amending and supplementing Article 10 of the Government's Decree No.127/2013/ND-CP on the penalty of administrative violations and the enforcement of implementing administrative decisions in the Customs area stipulates: "A fine of from 2,000,000 vnd to 4,000,000 vnd for the following violations: Violation of regulations on making and retaining dossier, documents and books ... ".