Further improving National Single Window, automated system for customs management

	Two systems bring great benefits to aviation customs control
	Progress of administrative procedures in NSW is uneven
	National Single Window and specialized inspection are expected to continue improving

The transport of goods at ALS Cargo Terminal. Photo: N.Linh

Understand problems

After two year of officially launching the Aviation National Single Window and automated system for Customs management and supervision at Noi Bai International Airport, the Customs has achieved outstanding results in the reform and modernization.

Accordingly, 100% of airlines have sent information to the National Single Window and carried out customs clearance procedures for 54,000 international flights on the system. The automated system for Customs management and supervision has connected all air cargo warehouses at Noi Bai International Airport, supervising 2.5 million shipments. The customs clearance time for each shipment reduces from 3-6 hours to below ten minutes.

However, Hanoi Customs Department said, to further reform the system it is necessary to remove some problems. For example, Decree 59/2018/ND-CP dated April 20, 2018 on the deadline of declaration for exit and entry aircraft, but the system doesn’t have the function of warning or supporting customs officers in charge of procedures for exit and entry aircraft to define time to send dossiers for exit and entry aircraft, fine for administrative violations and complete procedures for exit and entry aircraft.

Besides, there is a situation where airlines send duplicate and redundant flight information records, but the system cannot prevent, filter, and warn against duplicate information to the system; and there are no regulations and sanctions to handle violations for the above acts.

On the National Single Window System, the field of full name and address of the Consignee (CNEE) is limited to 35 characters, enterprises often have trouble when comparing information about the name and address of the enterprise on the business registration file and the information on the National Single Window System transmitted by the carrier, leading to difficulties and slowing down the progress of customs procedures of enterprises.

In addition, the system has neither supported the warning at the requirements of risk management (for example, reviewing shipments originating from Africa, shipments transited through countries with a high risk of drugs, and not channelizing consignments by risk level); nor supported tracking shipments of risky enterprises, thus it wastes time and human resources for manual supervision.

For the automated system for Customs management and supervision, there are also some problems that need to be overcome.

For example, the system does not yet have an automatic management function for imported goods, goods in transit, express goods, international postal goods, and goods sent to the off-airport cargo terminal which are required to make an independent transport declaration to be allowed to transport to the destination terminals.

Or shipments that only have a master bill of lading, but when they arrive in Vietnam, customs agents request to add a secondary bill of lading, which makes it difficult to manage, while, there are no regulations for this type. In addition, although the system currently has a function to display incorrect information announced by the warehouse, it does not have the function to request the airline to make additional declarations to update the confirmation of incorrect information.

For the management and supervision of exported goods, the system does not have a warning function to declare multiple declarations for a shipment, leading to the existence of unconfirmed export declarations. In addition, the system also does not have a function to warn of the difference in weight of goods between the actual information and the information on the export declaration, leading to difficulties in the management of exported goods.

In addition, according to Hanoi Customs, in the implementation of the National Single Window System, when declaring flights on entry and exit on the National Single Window System, some airlines do not declare passenger's booking information or declare incomplete information as prescribed; or import-export enterprises declare the wrong HS code of goods, so the system does not confirm that the goods are eligible for passing the customs supervision area.

For the case that many declarations opened for the same bill of lading (many declarations with the same HS code), the import-export organizations and individuals do not present the declarations at the same time, but only present one declaration, leading to the remaining declarations being suspended on the system.

Enterprises propose 24/7 support

To solve the problems of the air cargo terminal enterprises, a representative of Air Cargo Services of Vietnam JSC - ACSV also expects the Customs to increase the officers in charge of technical assistance to handle suspending of the system 24/7. It is necessary to have a focal point to receive problems and set a response time limit to increase the effectiveness of interaction among the units, boosting customs clearance.

A representative of ALS Cargo Terminal JSC said that the automated system for Customs management and supervision is one of the large and complex systems. Since it was launched, in addition to the advantages, it has revealed shortcomings. For example, some messages on errors do not provide specific contents and the cause of the errors; the support to handle problems of the system is still not standardized, leading to overloading and difficulty in timely support.

Progress of administrative procedures in NSW is uneven

In order to improve and perfect the systems in the near future, Deputy Director of Hanoi Customs Department Hoang Quoc Quang said that the unit will continue to focus resources, closely coordinate with relevant agencies, promptly handle arising problems and meet the requirements of customs reform and modernization, prevent smuggling and trade fraud and create maximum facilitation for import-export activities, contributing to improving the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness and continuing to research to expand the systems.