Measurement the time of goods release: specialized inspection is still hindrance

Customs officers are carrying out procedures for enterprises. Photo N. Linh

The Units have collected data for 100% of customs declarations making official registration within 6 working days and are continuouslymonitored until the goods are cleared.

Identification of limitation

According to Kim Long Biên-Deputy Head of the Customs Modernization Reform (General Department of Customs), the measure of average time to release goods is the basis for the Customs sector to deploy a series of solutions to reduce the time of Clearance such as: Promoting the application of IT in customs procedures (implementing VNACCS / VCIS system, implementing e-manifest, e-payment ...);

strengthening the implementation and effective linkage of the National Single Window, ASEAN Single Window; improving efficiency to reduce the time of specialized inspection activities for export and import goods; proposing the development and amendment of the customs legislation and related laws in order to simplify and harmonize import and export procedures; reforming structure, allocate resources so that they can be used optimally; implementing measures to ensure Integrity of Customs, improve transparency in customs operations; resolving difficulties with businesses and other stakeholders involved in the customs clearance process…

According to the evaluation of many Customs units, through time measurement to release goods to overcome the clearance time, and ensuring goods clearance are fast and convenientsupports export and import activities.

According to the Dong Nai Customs Department, measurement of time for clearance of import and export goods is to assess the activities of customs offices in the process of import and export in order to publicize and clarify administrative procedures and customs procedures. Accordingly, identifying the time customs office use to do customs procedures in the process of importing and exporting. This shall serve for evaluationefficiency, monitoring and managing the activity in the office of leadership. Detecting shortcomings in each stage of operation to consider and propose solutions to overcomethem. At the same time, determining the time of operation of the relevant specialized inspection agencies arising in the period from the time of registration of the customs declaration to the time of clearance.

Specialized examination - major impact factor

According to the assessment of Da Nang Customs Department, there are many factors affecting the release time. For preservationconsignments, prolonged time due to dependence on the specialized inspection agency and the timeanenterprise submitsthe results of specialized inspection; time to carry out procedures for moving and lifting goodscontainersand produce documents and goods for inspection by Customs. For example, for imports at the Customs Department of Da Nang, the clearance time for goods delivered for preservation is more than 18 days. This result depends mainly on the time that the specialized inspection body issues the certification / notification of the inspection results and the time the company presents the inspection / certification to the customs office for clearance. If we compare that with the previous measurement results, the clearance time for goods delivered to the store is slower (more than 8 days).

Customs Department of Da Nang said that although the implementation of the national system of specialized inspection is very convenient, and isfast for lookingup the license andcertificate of specialized inspection results, the system is still inadequate. In particular, a part of the cause is the information connection system. Currently, the system only connects the specialized management agencies of the ministries, but has not yet connected to specialized inspection organizations. While most of the declarations are subject to specialized inspections inthe week, they are carried out by specialized inspection organizations, which haven’t participated in the national single window. As a result, the registration and return of results by manual methods affectsthe time of submission of the test results.

At the Customs Department of Quang Ninh, one of the reasons that affect the release time is the policy of import-export management. For imported goods subject to conditions (State inspection of quality, quarantine, inspection, food hygiene and safety ...) according to the regulations of the ministries and branches is still large. Some goods must be inspected for quality in Hanoi or Hai Phong, this factor greatly affects the time of goods clearance. Although there are two specialized inspection centers in Cai Lan and Mong Cai, the effects are still limited, andthe analysis and inspection must still be carried out at the offices of the specialized inspection agencies where the modern laboratories are located.

On the side of the customs, some delays from the procedure such as: for some export and import shipments, the customs office often have to spend time to guide some enterprises to supplement the documents or correct errors during declaration; Guiding the regulations of the ministries and branches related to the goods areprocedures to be carried out.

To overcome the limitations, Da Nang Customs Department proposed measures to handle the cause of delay wouldaccelerate the implementation progress ofthe National single window Portal for specialized inspection goods to all ministries, branches and organizations conducting designated specialized examinations. At the same time, the customs office should upgrade the system and data transmission lines between customs offices, banks and treasuries.

Besides, Dong Nai Customs Department acknowledge that forshortening time for preservation goodscustoms clearance, it is necessary to propose specialized inspection agencies tocut down the time of returning inspection results so that customs offices can settle the goods clearance for enterprises.

At present, the results of measurement of goods release time of the provincial / municipal customs departments are summed up, analyzed and evaluated by the General Department of Customs so as to determine the average time for goods release. This is also one of the scientific criteriafor proposingpolicies and law enforcement to shorten the time of goods clearance during import and export process.