Focusing on reform and facilitating businesses when revising customs policies

	Tax – Customs policies are the motivation helping enterprises to recover and grow
	Several customs policies urgently perfected
	Regularly review and amend tax and customs policies to facilitate businesses

Customs officers of Thuy An Customs Branch - Thua Thien Hue Customs Department at work. Photo: N.Linh

Specifying regulations on the customs value

According to Deputy Director of the Customs Management and Supervision Department Dao Duy Tam, under the current regulations, if there are enough grounds to reject the declared value during customs clearance, the customs will ask the customs declarant to make additional declarations for customs clearance. If the declarant does not make additional declarations, the customs will impose a tax and reject the declared value.

In addition, if there is a doubt about the declared value, the customs will notify the customs declarant to consult the customs authority for customs clearance. However, there are problems due to inconsistency in consultations. The Customs authority does not apply risk management in the valuation inspection, leading to an increase in valuation declarations and businesses required for price consultations and increasing consultations, which will increase the workload for the customs.

Therefore, the draft circular to replace Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC and Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC will have many new points to overcome these shortcomings. For example, regarding consultation, the draft Circular supplements the case of indirect consultation applied to enterprises ranked from 1st-4th; and direct consultation applied to enterprises ranked from 5th to 9th (ranked by risk management); and provides additional documents related to the valuation.

Regarding the handling of consultation results, the draft Circular stipulates that for direct consultation, if the declared value and the customs value determined by the customs officer are different, the customs declarant is requested to explain, supplement and present documents to prove. If there are sufficient grounds to reject the declared value, the customs will reject the declared value, and if not, the declared value will be accepted.

According to the drafting Board, the cases of rejection of the declared value include: the customs declarant incorrectly applying the customs valuation method; the customs declarant cannot explain the difference between the customs value determined by the customs officer and the declared value when applying the same valuation method; the customs declarant neither carry out consultation procedures nor provide legal documents for the goodsand sign the Minutes of direct consultation

Notably, this draft circular abolishes the provision of one-time consultation for multiple uses of the results and specifies the customs value of the borrowed goods. Furthermore, the draft stipulates that the customs value of imported goods as borrowed goods is the entire value of the imported goods at the first import border gate, including the value of the borrowed goods and the transportation cost of the borrowed goods to the first import border gate.

Post-clearance audit to avoid duplication

According to the drafting Board, the new regulations on post-clearance audit focus on contents such as regulations on information collection and processing; procedures for suspending post-customs clearance inspection; handling of inspection results; conducting post-clearance inspection activities to avoid duplication; and clarifying areas for the declaration management area and registration.

For the collection of information, the draft provides regulations on information collection made in writing; and making working and delivery records. The draft circular stipulates procedures for suspending post-customs clearance audits for two cases: before and during post-customs clearance audits.

As for the suspension before post-customs clearance audit, the customs declarant is under inspection and investigation by the Customs, Tax, Inspectorate, State Auditor, and Police; or due to force majeure events.

The suspension during post-customs clearance audit applies to the following cases: to conduct verification and investigation at relevant agencies, organizations and individuals; due to force majeure events or other objective factors affecting the inspection time, or the customs declarant requests a suspension to handle and remedy problems caused by force majeure events or other objective factors affecting the inspection time.

Regarding the handling of post-customs clearance inspection results, the draft circular states specific cases to help enterprises take the initiative in coordination to handle inspection results.

In addition, there will be specific regulations on this issue to avoid overlap in post-clearance inspection activities. In case of detecting signs of violation of inspected contents or violations but no conclusion on signs of violation is issued, the unit detecting signs of violation shall report it to the General Department of Customs for consideration and decision on assigning a unit in charge of inspection as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 78 of the Law on Customs.

In case of post-clearance inspection, as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 78 of the Law on Customs, the customs authority must not duplicate the contents and violations inspected at the customs declarant's office.

Remove difficulties in customs – tax policies for Korean enterprises

In case of post-clearance inspection, as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 78 of the Law on Customs, the customs authority shall follow the annual post-clearance inspection plan approved by the Director General of the General Department of Customs.