HCM City Customs: Mass deployment of solutions for facilitating enterprises

Tan Son Nhat Customs officials checked imported fruits. Photo: T.H

Facilitating maximally to enterprises

With more than 50,000 enterprises operating import – export procedures at HCM City border gates, one of the plans selected to be key solutions by HCM City Customs Department is continuing to facilitate enteprises to help them overcome difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The plan “Bussiness community and HCM City Customs Department are trusted partners, joint hands to recover the ecomony in 2021” was signed and issued by Thang. Besides specific solutions and targets assigned to each unit, the head of the HCM City Customs Department agreed to implement a number of contents to help the business community facilitate trade effectively. In particular, setting up hotlines of key leaders to receive and immediately handle reports from the business community. At the same time, heads of affiliated units are requested to be responsible for receiving and immediately processing information reflected by the business community about customs operations and the spirit and attitude of customs officials, implementing customs legislation synchronously.

The HCM City Customs Department is responsible for putting together errors and legal violations in the customs management process for the business community to study and avoid similar mistakes when implementing customs procedures; encourage and support enterprises to be self-conscious, proactive and aware of complying with customs laws; encourage firms to self-control and denounce violations to ensure the integrity of the law

Each customs branch must develop a plan to meet enterprises which complies well with the customs law and have a large budget revenue to commit with a specific, practical action programme, actively support to facilitate the business community with a sense of good observance of the customs law, enhance reform of administrative procedures, customs modernisation, reduce time spent on implementing customs clearance for import and export goods and avoid arising problems causing trouble and increasing costs for businesses. Working specifically with enterprises operting warehouses, ports, airports, couriers, logistics services to serve business community when carrying out procedures in the city’s area.

Besides that, HCM City Customs Department wants enterprises to coordinate and provide information to support Customs in combating smuggling, trade fraud, fraud of origin, intellectual property infringement to ensure fair competition; suggesting a plan to implement specialised inspection at the border gate in accordance with Resolution No. 99/NQ-CP of the Prime Minister.

Pay attention to combat revenue loss

In tandem with the reform of procedures and trade facilitation, the solution that is focused on by the HCM City Customs Department to complete the budget target in 2021 is deploying a series of measures to combat revenue loss.

In particular, preventing revenue loss via consultation is received great attention. In 2020, the HCM City Customs Department increased the revenue by nearly VND 400 billion from price consultation for imported goods. To bring into full play this effect, the leaders of the HCM City Customs Department want customs branches to implement price consultation by following the current import-export tariff when detecting suspicions of taxable prices, of that prioritising to conduct strict inspection group of commodities having large turnover and high taxes. The post-clearance audit division at the branch should focus on checking and controlling declaration of "green channel" by organising specialised project to prevent businesses from taking advantage of smooth operation in the law for smuggling and trade fraud.

To effectively implement, branches need to thoroughly grasp each customs official to change the perception, thinking and management methods; focusing on the inspection and control of key enterprises, newly established exports and high risk and importing key products with a great value. Strengthening and enhancing the sense of responsibility for each official performing value determination for tax calculation. When the results of consultation are released, orgnising to collect revenue. Resolutely not let businesses have enough time to stop operating, dissolve or flee.

For enterprises that have well observed customs law and have a large amount of tax paid to the State budget, it is necessary to coordinate with the Import-Export Duty Department to appraise, advise and suggest leaders of the HCM City Customs Department determine the valuation for tax calculation of one import and export item with stable declared prices that are eligible for tax calculation in accordance with the transaction value, have been accepted by the Customs branch for the declared price. The branch should not has rampant suspecion, inspects and determines the taxable value repeatedly with unchanged results, causing troubles and costs for firms.

For cargo classification, the leaders of HCM City Customs Department requested to arrange customs officials with expertise in HS codes, enthusiasm and dedication to the work to advise leaders and coordinating with other customs branches to check HS codes or report to the leaders of HCM City Customs Department for timely correction; regularly check on the system to detect consignments with an incorrect declaration on code, advise leaders of the Department to rectify, collect tax and pay into the budget in time. The border-gate customs units should arrange customs officials with expertise in classifying HS codes to review the dossiers which have been or have not been cleared to promptly detect consignments with the wrong codes.

In addition, the department strengthened the synchronous implementation of measures to combat fraud of origin and improper labeling of goods, striving to exceed the revenue target of VND 108,000 billion in 2021.