Last lesson: Enhance automation in the customs supervision

Could the Deputy Director General explain why the Customs is implementing the Project on management and supervision of goods at seaports and airports at this time? What does the implementation of the Project mean in the process of the Customs reforming and modernizing and facilitating the export and import activities under the Government's policy?

In recent years, the Customs has promoted the Customs reform and modernization, in which the information technology is applied strongly in the Customs operations. Thanks to that, the administrative procedures have been reformed to facilitate the enterprises in the process of the customs procedures.

However, in the area of management and supervision of goods at the international seaports and airports, the application of information technology (IT) and change of the operation method have not been just improved significantly; The communication between the Customs and the port businesses is limited. This led to meet difficulties in the goods monitoring and managing for the Customs in the ports; Long time storage of goods, large storage costs of goods.

In order to reduce quickly the administrative procedures, the time of customs supervision at seaports and airports, reduce time and cost for the enterprises, the connection between the IT systems of the port, warehouse and yard businesses for monitoring and managing the goods and the IT systems of the Customs office in accordance with the Customs Law of 2014 to share the goods and transportation information timely and sufficiently is urgent.

Starting from the situation and requirements of the above management, the General Department of Customs has developed and implemented urgently the Project of managing and supervising of the goods at seaports and airports.

This Project will create a new breakthrough in the Customs management in seaports and airports. Through the centralized IT system, the Customs office will exchange and update the information with the port and warehouse businesses, help to monitor the moving, fluctuation and status process of the goods tightly and timely from entering to leaving and transporting among the customs supervised locations.

When implementing, the Project will help improve the automation of the customs supervision system in support of the customs inspection, reconciliation and risk assessment, monitoring, and control. The Project also helps to improve the management efficiency, define the responsibilities of the enterprises, prevent commercial fraud, prevent smuggling, shorten time and expenses in the customs procedure for the Customs declarants.

Dear Sir, this Project has not only affected the operation of the Customs office but also required the close coordination of the relevant units (the management agencies of the Ministries, Branches, the warehouse and port businesses, the shipping companies, the carriers...). So, what are the tasks set for each relevant agency?

The Project of goods managing and supervising at seaports and airports with the application of centralized IT systems to exchange and update information with the port and warehouses businesses, to monitor closely and promptly the movement, fluctuation, and condition of the goods from arrival to departure and transportation among the customs supervised locations. The implementation of this Project requires the coordination of many stakeholders such as the Customs, the enterprises and the related Ministries and Branches with the following specific contents and tasks:

On the side of the Customs office, in order to develop the requirements of the problem, the professional process and the technical requirements, the General Department of Customs conducted a real investigation of the management and the professional process at the seaports, airports in Hai Phong and Hanoi. At the same time, the Customs collected the ideas of the professional units into and under the General Department of Customs as well as organized the conferences to collect opinions of the warehouse, yard, port enterprises and other relevant units for the system of the goods management and supervision at seaports, airports, warehouses. On June 21st, 2017, the General Department of Customs issued the Plan 4098/KH-TCHQ on the implementation preparation for the Project, which required the Customs Departments of the relevant provinces and cities some specific works including: Establishing the committee to deploy and review the technical infrastructure, the professional process, and to build the implementation plan. The General Department of Customs will also organize the training courses for the Customs officers before implementation of the Project. In addition, during the implementation process, the General Department of Customs will coordinate with the enterprises dealing in ports, warehouses and yards and the related units closely to resolve and remove the arising obstacles and difficulties promptly, not to disturb or make difficulties for the people and the enterprises in the process of the customs procedures when implementing this Project.

For the enterprises, related to many objects, in which, besides the enterprises dealing in ports, warehouses and yards coordinate with the Customs offices in developing the implementation process, requiring the solutions, they need to review and upgrade the IT system to connect with the system of the Customs for exchanging information and coordinate closely with the Customs office in the implementation process.

Related to the shipping companies, the shipping agents, the forwarding agents: Full and accurate declaration of information related to the manifest, bill of lading through the National Single Window to ensure the source of information for the risk management, issuing the goods identification number, information management and comparison before arrival.

Meanwhile, the partners in building software systems have continued and will continue to work closely with the General Department of Customs to design, build the system and collect the ideas of the Customs units, port businesses, and the related subjects to improve the software System, ensure the system deployment as planned.

On the side of the Ministries and Branches involved in the process of monitoring goods in seaports and airports, according to the road map and scope of implementation, they will connect and exchange information, coordinate with the Customs offices in the goods supervision and management at the port. In particular, focusing on a number of specific contents such as: coordinating in specialized inspection (quarantine, food safety inspection, quality control ...); Managing the identification numbers of goods linked the management, supervision and customs procedures with the implementation of the licensing procedures and the specialized inspection of the Ministries and Branches.

Container yard of the Dinh Vu port

Dear Deputy Director General, through the actual preparation work in Hai Phong, the Customs News recognized the feedback of some port businesses about problems related to server problems of the Customs office, the transmission link to the database server of the Customs office has been still overloaded; Or there has not been the specific guidance on management and supervision responsibility of goods in/out and saving at the port businesses… How does the General Department of Customs solve these problems?

In order to handle the problems, the General Department of Customs has prepared the plan in both preparation and implementation.

At the stage of implementation preparation, the General Department of Customs has directed the Department of Customs Information Technology and Statistics, the Hai Phong Customs Department, the Hanoi Customs Department to cooperate with the enterprises dealing in ports, warehouses and yards for construction and testing in order to complete the software system. In particular, the difficulties and problems of the business community have been recognized and resolved by the Customs.

On the other hand, in the Plan 4098/KH-TCHQ, the General Department of Customs requested the Customs Departments of the relevant provinces and cities to take the initiative in reviewing and requesting the Sub-Departments to assess the current status and readiness of the IT structure of the Customs office at the expected locations (computers, network, transmission line ...), proposing the upgraded contents; Reporting the results of the review to the General Department of Customs for planning to upgrade the infrastructure to meet the implementation requirements.

On the basis of the software system, on the basis of the problem requirements, the professional process, the technical requirements agreed, the General Department of Customs has been improving the functions of the customs management system, setting up the IT structure as well as supporting the businesses dealing the ports, warehouses, yards to build the software, examine and connect with the system of Customs office.

Legally, the legal provisions for the implementation of the Project have been reviewed, revised and included in the draft revising Decree 08/2015/ND-CP, Circular 38/2015 /TT- BTC and the General Department of Customs will have specific guidelines before implementation of the Project.

Thus, the careful preparation of the General Department of Customs for the technical infrastructure as well as a legal basis will ensure readiness for the implementation of the Project and minimize the problems, obstacles and incidents occurred during deployment.

Especially, in the implementation, the General Department of Customs has also set up the standby plans in case of problems related to infrastructure such as transmission lines, servers...

In terms of the resources, the General Department of Customs 's Helpdesk will support continuously to the businesses and the Customs officers during the deployment process, especially at an early stage.

The guidelines in the case of system problems, transmission lines... were included in the provisions in the draft amending Decree 08/2015/ND-CP, Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, and other documents.

In fact, the previous pilot implementation of the containerized goods in the Hai Phong seaport showed that the first phase of implementation still had some unexpected and circumstantial problems, how has the General Department of Customs had solutions to deal with the similar situation (may occur) when implementing the Project on management and supervision of the goods in seaports and airports, Dear Sir?

Learned from the implementation of Article 41 of the former Customs Law, especially many unexpected and circumstantial problems the General Department of Customs has implemented synchronously the plans and solutions.

In particular, the preparation is carried out carefully such as: Analysing deeply and full requirements of the problem as a basis for building the system; Issuing a plan to prepare for a uniform implementation (Plan No. 4098/KH-TCHQ); Improving and upgrading the IT systems and infrastructure; Improving the legal basis; Organizing training, propaganda.

At the same time, the General Department of Customs also organizes the implementation cautiously and has an appropriate roadmap. Accordingly, the pilot will be deployed first in Hai Phong, Hanoi then expanded to the key seaports and airports and expanded to the whole country.

In addition, the General Department of Customs has developed the plans and scenarios for dealing with arising problems and situations such as: Organizing the implementation support divisions (at the level of the General Department and the Customs Departments) to solve immediately the arising problems, especially in the early stages of implementation; Issuing promptly the documents guiding the import-export enterprises, the shipping lines, the shipping agents, the port and warehouse businesses in declaring, supplying and exchanging information; Having a coordination mechanism between the Customs and the enterprises in the implementing process as well as handling arising problems; Setting up the reception and problem solutions (Helpdesk)...

Thank the honorable Deputy General Director!