General Department of Customs requires units to ensure smooth customs management

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Customs officers of Customs Branch managing investment and processed goods are on duty. Photo: Thu Hoa

Timely advice and direction to respond to disease

In the first quarter of 2020, the General Department of Customs drastically carried out urgent solutions to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic, and carried out regular tasks such as: Completing policies, institutions; synchronously and drastically implementing solutions to facilitate trade and combat revenue loss; strengthening administrative reform, customs modernization andIT application to operations; and fighting against smuggling and trade fraud.

To prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic, the General Department of Customs strictly complied with the instructions and directions of the Party, the Government, the Prime Minister, the Steering Committee for prevention and control of the epidemic, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance and related agencies; issued guiding documents to the whole sector on epidemic prevention and control such as Official Letters 26 / VP-TH dated January 31, 2020, No. 587 / TCHQ-GSQL dated January 31, 2020, No. 676 / TCHQ-GSQL dated February 5, 2020, No. 1431 / TCHQ-GSQL, March 9, 2020, No. 1525 / TCHQ-GSQL, March 12, 2020, andNo. 1966 / TCHQ-GSQL, 2135 / TCHQ-VP in a timely fashion; advised the Ministry of Finance to promulgate and guide the implementation of Decision No. 155 / QD-BTC dated February 7, 2020, and 436 / QD-BTC of March 27, 2020, on the list of goods eligible for import tax exemption in service of the Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control; coordinate to revise Decree 125/2017 / ND-CP to remove difficulties for production and business activities; and deployed solutions to enhance the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic and created favorable conditions and removed difficulties for enterprises affected by the epidemic, and promoted imports and exports of goods across borders in accordance with the directions of the Government and Ministry of Finance.

Specifically, the General Department of Customs directed the customs departments of the Northern border provinces and the border provinces adjacent to Laos and Cambodia to actively deploy measures to accelerate goods clearance at border gates, support import and export activities and prevent the epidemic; closely follow the situation of imports and exports, goods stuck at border gates, difficulties and problems of the provincial and municipal customs departments to coordinate with ministries and agencies to solve problems related to the import and export activities, especially markets affected by the epidemic; and then report to the leaders of the Ministry and the Government for the direction and management of the epidemic prevention and control.

In addition, the General Department of Customs also drastically implemented measures to prevent and control the epidemic for civil servants, contract employees and employees. So far, there have been no cases of infection at the General Department of Customs and provincial and municipal customs departments.

At the same time, the General Department also coordinatedwith some localities on the use of customs headquarters to deploy concentrated isolation areas (Vietnam Customs School, Customs Control Team-Ha Tinh Customs Department, former headquarter of Hoang Dieu border gate customs branch underBinh Phuoc Customs Department); studied solutions regarding working online at the General Department and provincial and municipal Customs Departments

To ensure smooth operation

In the second quarter of 2020, to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic and fulfill set targets in 2020, the General Department of Customs has directed its units to strictly abide by instructions of the Party, the Government, Directive No. 15 / CT-TTg of March 27, 2020 and Directive 16 / CT-TTg dated March 31, 2020 of the Prime Minister on the implementation of urgent measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic and the guiding documents of leaders at all levels. The head of the unit is responsible for the infection of civil servants, contracted employees and employees caused by failure to strictly abide by the regulations on prevention and control of the epidemic at the workplace.

The major issue is to ensure the smooth state management over customs, specifically clearing import and export goods, goods in transit, vehicles on entry and exit, luggage of passengers on entry and exit; maintaining the operation of the information technology system to meet the requirements of customs operations, ensuring that the IT system operates smoothly 24/7; ensuring security, safety and smoothoperation of the national database system on import and export goods; and ensuring anti-smuggling investigation and online surveillance.

In parallel, the General Department of Customs has continued to take measures to facilitate import and export activities while ensuring the disease prevention and control requirements; coordinated with relevant forces to carry out the Government's directions: Temporarily closing main and sub-border gates for passersby from 1:00 on April 1, 2020 on the border with Laos and Cambodia; and strictly controlling entry through international border gates on land borders.

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The General Department has also launched working online, maintaining the number of staff working directly at the office to a minimum, avoiding delaying activities, especially for activities with time limits as prescribed by law and public services serving people and enterprises;prepared a scenario to cope with the infection levels, ensuring safety for civil servants, contracted employees and employees; forecasted and fully prepared equipment, supplies and material facilities to prevent and control the epidemic; and save recurrent expenditures andmobilize sources to serve the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic.