Necessary to tighten management of customs valuation

Deputy Director General Nguyen Duong Thai made a speech at the conference. Photo: H.Nụ

Attending the conference were Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Duong Thai; Mr. Alistair Gall, Senior Trade Facilitation Expert of USAID's Trade Facilitation Program; representatives of units under the General Department and leaders, customs officials from 17 provincial Customs Departments.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Director General Nguyen Duong Thai said that on August 30, 2019, the Minister of Finance signed Circular 60 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC, regulating customs valuation of import and export goods and taking effect from October 15, 2019. In the process of drafting, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has organized many workshops to collect opinions from units inside and outside the sector, associations and businesses.

According to Mr. Thai, Circular 60 focused on three groups of issues: group on general provisions (Clauses 1 and 2, Article 1); group of principles and methods of customs valuation determination (Clause 3 to Clause 9 of Article 1) and group of databases of valuation (Clauses 10 to 13 of Article 1).

He also added that through monitoring the implementation of inspection, consultation and valuation in recent years, the General Department of Vietnam Customs realized that there were some issues when implementing the Circular.

Accordingly, in term of the determination of suspected valuation, the audit results in 2018 and currently being deployed showed that many cases of goods were subjected to inspection and price consultation without the identification of suspicious signs. There were even cases which declared a low price (lower than the main constituent materials and transportation costs), and still were not identified as suspicious. Therefore, Mr. Thai requested the provincial Customs Departments to review the reality at the branches in order to organize the implementation properly.

Regarding the valuation consultation, there were two trends that were rejecting the declared value without, basis leading to complaints by enterprises; or accepting the low declared value while having all factors to reject the declared value such as conflicting dossiers and information provided and directed by the General Department of Vietnam Customs. The consultation is conducted formally and ineffectively. Particularly, there were cases in which enterprises came to consult but the authority did not do consultations for enterprises, then rejected and set prices on the given reason that enterprises did not come to consult. Therefore, Deputy General Director Nguyen Duong Thai emphasized that provincial customs departments needed to consider and solve this issue immediately.

Regarding the valuation determination, there were situations of determining valuation, fixing prices too high, without sufficient grounds, causing complaints from enterprises.

Mr. Thai requested the local customs units to consider and clearly identify the responsibilities of all levels (branches, departments) in collecting information from sources as prescribed or applied the incorrect customs valuation method.

In order to ensure the implementation, avoid arising problems and overcome the above situation, the provincial Customs Departments should organize training and grasp thoroughly the provisions of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC, Circular 60, Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC and guiding documents of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Thai emphasized.

Additionally, Mr. Alistair Gall said Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC on customs valuation was issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2015. After four years of implementation at the customs units, there were some problems which must be reviewed and revised. Therefore, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has coordinated with USAID's Trade Facilitation Program to review, develop the draft and consult the stakeholders. Through consultation, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has completed and by the end of August, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 60 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC on customs valuation of import and export goods.

The conference affirmed the coordination between the General Department of Vietnam Customs and USAID's Trade Facilitation Program and reflected USAID's commitment to Vietnam in facilitation, Mr. Alistair Gall stressed.