Receive enterprises’ opinions on the draft amendment and supplement of Circular 38

Professional activities at Bac Thang Long Industrial Park Custom sub-Department (Ha Noi). Photo by N.Linh.

Reduce contact with Customs

Businesses reflect the change in the method of monitoring import-export goods at ports, airports and land border risks affecting costs, time clearance and affect the production activities of enterprises.

In this regard, according to the drafting committee, Article 52 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC stipulates that "for export or imported goods exempt from actual inspection, customs declarants or carriers shall provide the declaration of the container, the list of goods, e-customs information (address at http://www.customs.gov.vn) or declaration system of the customs declarer etc.".

The above guideline has not specifically guided the responsibilities of customs declarants, port traders, warehouses, yards and customs offices in the customs inspection of export and import goods and has not facilitated the declarer. Therefore, the draft circular has revised and supplemented the monitoring contents in order to clearly define the responsibilities of the parties involved in the connection and exchange of information between the two systems (the system of port business, warehouses, yards and systems of customs offices) in an electronic manner for the purpose of eliminating the customs declarer having to print the list of containers and the list of goods and have meet with the customs office to carry out the customs procedures to receive eligible goods through supervision area as stipulated in Article 52 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC.

With changes in procedures at the monitoring will help the cost saver, travel time (the average time to confirm goods through the monitoring area is 5 minutes / 1 declaration) without having to meet Customs.

For the customs authorities, new regulations on goods supervision also ensure the management. Mr. Au Anh Tuan, acting director of the Customs Supervision and Management Department, said that according to the new goods monitoring method, the number of bills of lading did not disappear. For example, with the imported goods, the managed number is the month and year issue a bill of lading plus the number of bill of lading. This is to avoid overlapping of the carriers' bills of lading in case of duplication. "Bills of lading cannot guarantee 100% difference between shipping lines and delivery companies. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the date, month and year of issuance of a bill of lading to ensure the duplication to reduce to the lowest rate", Mr. Tuan said.

In relation to the customs dossier, Intel Corporation's representative suggested clarifying the meaning of the word "originals" in Article 3 and Article 16 of the draft. "Original" is the sign, signature or origin of the digital data. Nowadays, e-transactions are very strong, so businesses have removed signatures, stamps on transactions, all activities performed on electronic systems.

Explaining the issue, Mr. Au Anh Tuan said that the Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC approved both electronic and fax versions and many other electronic documents printed from the system without signature shall be accepted by the customs office. Regulations on customs records respect the reality of trading activities of enterprises, as long as enterprises commit that is the original. In cases where enterprises are still required by the customs offices to sign and seal the dossiers, they shall have to consult with the General Department of Customs for settlement.

To deal with many issues related to the type of processing and export producing

In order to further improve the draft Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, the drafting committee has received many opinions related to the type of processing, export production. For instance, on the management of materials consuming fixed asset reports, the group of e-businesses has proposed to clarify the legal basis of consumable materials (welding equipment, nylon wrapping film etc.); Proposing not to manage norms and to remove the report on management and use of fixed assets of enterprises as reported to the tax authorities. The customs office retrieves data from the tax report and checks it through the company's accounting records.

Regarding this content, the drafting committee said that for the group of materials consumed in the process of using non-norms, the drafting committee accepted opinions and stipulated in Article 55; For reports on management and use of fixed assets of export processing enterprises, comparison of the current regulations does not require enterprises to report this content.

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of regulations on change of use purpose and transfer of domestic consumption, the group of electronic processing enterprises recommend the principle of "goods purchased from domestic market of export processing enterprises at the time of original import when changing purpose of use, transfer of domestic consumption does not apply the import-export goods management policy”.

In this regard, the drafting committee said that the policy of commodities for export processing enterprises imported from abroad or from the domestic market when changing the purpose of use and transfer of domestic consumption is stipulated in Clause 5 of Article 25 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP and Decree No. 114/2016/ND-CP. However, for this content has recently been specified in the Law of Foreign Trade (policy for the separate customs area), the drafting committee will be noted for comments when participating in the construction. The document guiding the Foreign Trade Management Law is in line with reality, which does not require a policy check on conversion when the input has been implemented.