HCM City Customs: Many breakthroughs in reform and modernization

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Customs officers of Tan Son Nhat international airport check imported goods. Photo: Thu Hoa.

from problems of enterprises

In order to tackle problems and inadequacies of enterprises on the implementation of specialized inspections for exported and imported goods, from the beginning of 2016, under the Prime Minister’s scheme 2026/QD-TTg of 17^th November 2015 on "Improving the quality of specialized inspections for exported and imported goods", the HCM City Customs Department actively cooperated with specialized agencies to set up two specialized inspection stations at Tan Son Nhat international airport and Cat Lai port. Also, building the electronic portal on specialized inspections has helped functional forces to manage registration, sampling, examination and clearance of goods, thereby reducing time, travel costs, shortening 50% the time for Customs clearance for enterprises as well as improving the efficiency of specialized inspections of the State management agencies.

The HCM City Customs Department has actively organized many conferences on specialized inspections to acknowledge the difficulties and problems of the business community as well as the shortcomings of current legal documents to report to the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vu Duc Dam, National Assembly’s representatives of HCM City and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

Regarding administrative reform, in addition to the implementation of e-Customs procedures through the VNACCS/VCIS system in all Customs Branches, the HCM City Customs Department has carried declarations on e-Manifest system among authorities such as Taxation, State Treasury, the Finance sector and commercial banks with more than 98% of tax revenues through this system.

The combination between the luggage scanning system and the security system at the Customs Branch of Tan Son Nhat international has reduced 50% procedures and time compared to the previous time to facilitate immigration passengers.

The HCM City Customs Department has held 20 dialogue conferences to listen to the shortcomings, promptly remove obstacles and create favourable conditions for the business community, with more than 1,000 companies participating in and more than 350 questions and problems to be resolved. Coordinating with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Centre for Trade Promotion and Investment in Ho Chi Minh City, the Board management of export processing zones and industrial parks in HCM City to organize training courses to publicize new regulations on Customs procedures, the Law on import and export duty in 2016 for 3,000 businesses and more than 5,000 attendees.

Applying modern management methods

In 2016, the HCM City Customs Department promoted the collection of information to effectively apply risk management methods. Currently, the rate of Green Channel (exemption of examination and inspections) reached 56.4%, the rate of Yellow Channel (examination of records and dossiers) reached 38% and the rate of Red Channel (physical inspections) reached 5.6%. Notably, the rate of Red Channel has been low but the rate of detection of violations has increased, thereby reducing the time of Customs clearance for exported and imported goods and creating a healthy business environment for the business community while ensuring the strict management of Customs, anti-fraud and anti-smuggling.

For large gate such as Cat Lai, VICT port and Phuoc Long ICD, Customs officers have used the container scanning system for inspections before exported and imported of goods have been loaded and unloaded, thereby classifying the level of risk for each commodity group in order to apply risk management effectively, accelerating the clearance of goods while ensuring the strict management of Customs.

Building online surveillance divisions to promote connectivity and monitoring on import and export activities at seaports and Tan Son Nhat International Airport as well as grasping the changes of import and export consignments to help Customs officers promptly detect and prevent smuggling cases as well as resolving inappropritate procedures of enterprises.

Promoting reform and modernization

In 2017, the HCM City Customs Department will continue to promote reform and modernization. From the beginning of 2017, the HCM City Customs Department implemented electronic monitoring procedures under Article 41 of the Customs Law for seaports and airports. Accordingly, Customs authorities and enterprises will connect through information technology systems to exchange data on imported and exported goods during Customs clearance at seaports, simplifying procedures and reducing time and costs of enterprises.

In the near future, the HCM City Customs Department will implement underground luggage scanning system at Tan Son Nhat international airport. This new process will allows all luggage of passengers to be checked on entry without opening, not to affect the process of conducting procedures for immigration passengers. In the case where Customs officers detect suspicious signs, the luggage will be continuously monitored from the underground system to the stage of examining procedures and Customs declaration. The application of underground luggage scanning system will facilitate passengers on entry and exit, minimizing the time of performing procedures, especially for those passengers with suspicious luggage. Therefore, Customs officers have been also reduced the pressure of work and have more time to concentrate on handling violated cases.

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Implementing e-manifest system at Tan Son Nhat international airport is one of the objectives to strengthen the application of risk management at Tan Son Nhat international airport, which will reduce administrative procedures and clearance time for enterprises as well as passengers. Besides, Customs officers will apply the electronic chip system to monitor suspicious luggage to ensure strict management, improve the efficiency of handling violations, preventing the transportation of illegal drugs and weapons across borders.