Preventing violating enterprises from shirking responsibility

Enterprises illegally importing fish balls refused to receive goods. Photo: T.H

Preventing violating enterprises from dissolution

In order to prevent the situation that enterprises are being inspected and determined the act of breaking rules, but they dissolve the business to avoid tax obligations to the state, HCM City Customs Department sent an official dispatch to the Business Registration Office - HCM City Planning and Investment Department, Thu Duc City Tax Branch, Go Vap District Tax Branch to propose on suspending the implementation of dissolution procedures for three enterprises.

However, the Import-Export Duty Department received an official dispatch from the Business Registration Office – HCM City Planning and Investment Department. It stated that it was impossible to suspend the dissolution procedures of the enterprise at the request of the Customs authority because the current law has not provided for this case.

The HCM City Planning and Investment Department cited the provisions of Point c, Clause 1, Article 65 of Decree No. 01/2021/ND-CP. It stipulates that cases in which application for/notification of changes to enterprise registration information is not allowed.

Accordingly, the application or notification is refused at the request of the Court or judgment enforcement authority or investigating authority, head or deputy head of the investigating authority or investigator as prescribed in the Code of Criminal Procedures.

Thus, Customs authority has not been prescribed by law as the agency authorized to request the business registration agency to suspend the dissolution of the enterprise.

According to HCM City Customs Department, in fact, there are many cases of violations of enterprises arising at Customs authority, such as not submitting the final settlement of duty-free imported raw materials, importing banned goods, and making incorrect customs declarations, falsely declaring the value of goods. The customs authority is carrying out handling activities, but the amount of tax violated by the enterprise has not yet been determined. However, during this time, the enterprise carried out the procedures to close the tax code and dissolve the business at the business registration office in order to shirk responsibility to the State.

Many sophisticated tricks

In order to prevent violating enterprises from shirking responsibility, for the above case, HCM City Customs Department has reported and proposed the Import and Export Duty Department - General Department of Vietnam Customs to advise and report to the leaders at all levels for consideration and supplement the regulations: permitting the customs authority to request the business registration authority not to register or change the business registration contents of the enterprise within the time when Customs is handling violations of enterprises.

Besides the above case, the Customs authorities detected a number of cases that the consignee does not receive goods showing signs of violation to avoid responsibility when realizing that they would be detected by the Customs authority. In these cases, businesses and individuals find all sorts of tricks to shirk responsibility. For example, blaming the foreign seller for delivering the wrong goods or failing to sign a commercial purchase and sale contract causing difficulties for the Customs authority in the process of considering and handling.

Typically, the enterprise whose name is on the transport document refuses to receive the goods before the time of inspection by the Customs; enterprises refuse to receive goods after seeing the goods before carrying out procedures; refuse to receive the goods after opening the declaration and the customs authority inspects and detects violations.

In some cases, they try to hook up with foreign sellers to make many e-commerce contracts for purchase and sale at the same time with different quantities and types of goods. If they were detected of being violated, they would blame the foreign sellers of mistakenly delivering goods from one contract to another.

In addition, e-transactions and e-commerce are an inevitable development trend in the world, and businesses and smugglers have been equipped with high information technology knowledge. Besides using the methods and tricks of making incorrect declarations of quantity and types, making fake dossiers and vouchers, which are not consistent with transactions, objects and businesses take advantage of electronic transactions, illegally use another person's citizen ID card to register a business, "bogus business", or create many websites showing addresses in many countries, pretending to be foreign companies to make fake transactions, then hire other businesses or individuals (also known as storks) in the country to name the owner of the goods or open the import declaration of the shipment (no entrustment contract). When detected by Customs authority, the mastermind easily erases traces and shirks responsibility.