Lang Son Customs faces many difficulties in State budget collection

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Huu Nghi Customs officer inspects imported special-use trucks. Photo: H.Nu

Reason for low revenue

In the first nine months of the year, the Chinese side persisted in pursuing the "Zero Covid" policy, making it difficult for import-export activities through border gates in the province.

To improve the customs clearance capacity, Lang Son Customs has actively advised and developed solutions to facilitate import and export activities at border gates. As a result, the department has maintained customs clearance for imports and exports at four border gates: Huu Nghi international border gate, Dong Dang international railway station border gate, Chi Ma border gate and Tan Thanh border gate.

In particular, the Huu Nghi - Huu Nghi Quan and Tan Thanh - Po Chai border gates are implementing a contactless delivery model by cutting and connecting containers at the waiting yard, and launching the digital border gate platform, so the clearance efficiency has been higher than the first three months of the year.

According to statistics by September 20, Lang Son Customs processed 62,642 sets of declarations of enterprises with total import-export turnover of nearly US$1.9 billion, down 33.2% year-on-year. Both exports and imports declined from 26.3 - 47.4% year-on-year.

In addition, the unit also received and carried out procedures for 137,671 turns of means of transport through the land border gate and 1,326 trains carrying import and export goods.

In fact, the sharp decline in turnover has greatly affected the revenue of the unit. By the end of September 20, the unit had remitted to the state budget VND3,119 billion, equal to 56.71% of the assigned target, down by 44% year-on-year. Lang Son Customs has also implemented fee collection according to Resolution 01/2019/NQ-HDND dated July 12, 2019 of the People's Committee of Lang Son province, collecting VND151.5 billion.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department said that the decline in state budget revenue through the province is due to the Chinese policy on stricter control measures at a higher level for import and export goods, people and means of entry and exit to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic, slow customs clearance performance and decrease in import of commodities with stable contributions to the budget.

In addition, the commodity groups with big turnover and revenue plunged compared to the same period last year. In particular, the tariff reduction roadmap under the ASEAN-China Trade Agreement in the 2018-2022 period and the VAT exemption and reduction policy according to Decree 15/2022/ND-CP dated January 28, 2022 have also affected the revenue of Lang Son Customs.

Faced with the above situation, Lang Son Customs has directed units, especially border gate customs units to urgently implement solutions to achieve the highest efficiency.

Developing solutions to increase revenue

At the end of August, Lang Son Customs held a dialogue conference with businesses operating in the area to understand the problems of businesses, thereby solving them in a timely manner. Lang Son Customs has also actively worked with relevant units in the province to organize dialogues with Chinese authorities to unify the method of goods delivery between the two sides to improve customs clearance efficiency.

Mr. Nguyen Vu Tru, Director of Vietnam Machinery Co., Ltd. said that the company mainly imports machinery and equipment through Huu Nghi international border gate and always receives instructions and support from the customs agency. In particular, problems in the declaration of goods have been quickly removed by the customs at the dialogues, which helps the company save time and costs.

In order to improve the efficiency of budget collection in the rest of 2022 and strive to complete the assigned revenue target, the unit is focusing on developing solutions to review and exploit revenue sources and strengthen anti-loss of revenue, said Nguyen Huu Vuong.

In which, Lang Son Customs continues to implement solutions to enhance trade facilitation, promptly remove difficulties for businesses; strengthen coordination and organize discussions with Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China to promptly solve problems in customs clearance. Furthermore, the unit will focus on reviewing and grasping the tax debt situation; enhance the fight against revenue loss through classification, valuation, the origin of goods, tax exemption, reduction, refund, and non-collection of tax; and perform well the supervision, management, post customs clearance audit, and risk management to achieve the highest revenue.

Moreover, the unit will effectively supervise and manage people and means of import and export, import and export goods through the province according to regulations, improve customs clearance capacity; closely monitor developments and import-export activities at the border; closely follow the working contents at the talks and the conclusions of the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee to implement solutions to facilitate import-export activities at the border gates.

Also, the Customs Enforcement Team and border-gate customs units will closely monitor the area, and effectively implement plans for inspection, control, and fight against smuggling and trade fraud through the province.