Restore operation order of Customs brokerage agents

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	Customs News will organize online questionnaire with the topic: What need to be modified in the policies of customs brokers?

Operations at Cai Lan Customs port Customs Branch. Photo: Thu Trang

Many Customs agent have not reported on their operations

As of beginning of March 2019, the General Department of Customs decided to recognize more than 1000 Customs agents. Among them, many Customs agents are under the management of Hanoi Customs Department (229 brokers), Ho Chi Minh City (440 brokers), Hai Phong (138 brokers). Although the legal regulations related to operations of Customs agents have been issued, but according to the General Department of Customs, many agents have not strictly complied with regulations. Many agents have not complied with regulations on the operational report as stipulated in Clause 9 Article 13 of Circular 12/2015 / TT-BTC, which is subject to handling cases stipulated in Clause 2 Article 7 of Circular 12/2015 / TT-BTC. In particular, Hanoi Customs Department made a list of more than 90 agents, and Ho Chi Minh City Customs more than 200 agents. To ensure compliance with regulations, the General Department of Customs has requested Customs agents in the "warning" list to quickly check and overcome problems.

Talking to a reporter from the Customs Newspaper on this issue, Director of HNH Mover Co., Ltd., (Ho Chi Minh City) Tran Thi Kim Ngan (the company is in the "warning" list of the General Department of Customs-reporter) said : After receiving the notification from the General Department of Customs, the company has quickly reviewed and reported on the operation of customs brokers, including the import and export type, the number of enterprises signing contracts and number of declarations and turnover.Although there have been notifications about the request for complying fully with regulations for reporting on the operation situation, not all enterprises have a sense of conformity. According to the review by the Customs Supervision and Management Department, among 300 customs brokerage agents that were required to review and report on their operation by the General Department of Customs, only half have responded to the requirements.

Sharing about reporting on operations of Customs brokerage agent, Ms. Ngan said, the reporting was quite simple, the company only took a short time (about half a day) to complete the reports of a few years. Ms. Ngan explained about why the company is in the "warning" list of the General Department of Customs, the reason was the insufficient knowledge of current regulations related to the operation of Customs agents. This is also a lesson for the company to be more careful in the observance with the law. Furthermore, the periodical reporting also helps the company to regularly review the operation of the Customs agent, thereby better controlling and planning to expand this service.

Efforts to build mechanisms on the operations of Customs agents

Currently, the Customs Management and Supervision Department has reported to the leaders of the General Department of Customs on considering and handling Customs brokerage agents who intentionally commit violations.

Also regarding the operation of Customs agents, the General Department of Customs has completed the draft Circular to amend and supplement Circular 12/2015 / TT-BTC in the direction of creating favourable conditions but still ensuring requirements of state management; regulations on granting and suspending and terminating the operation of agents; ensuring sanctions for Customs agents who failed to comply with the regulations and deliberately cheated.

Previously, at the end of 2018, the General Department of Customs carried out a survey of customs brokerage services at provincial and municipal Customs departments which have large volume of declarations and large tax revenues such as Customs Departments at Lang Son, Hanoi; Hai Phong; Quang Ninh; Thanh Hoa; Danang; Dong Nai; Ho Chi Minh City; Binh Duong, to propose solutions in order to improve the quality and efficiency of Customs brokers. Developing a plan for carrying out solutions to improve the operational capacity of Customs agents.

The General Department of Customs has collected information from both Customs authorities, customs brokers, import-export enterprises (total issued survey sheets were nearly 2,400, total collected sheets were over 1,100, in which nearly 250 Customs brokers were sent 637 survey sheets).

Strictly managing the operation of Customs brokerage agents VCN – Customs brokerage agents will be suspended from operation or terminated from operation if they fail ...

The survey results have recognized the main problems such as: Customs agents do not sign agent contracts, do not use digital signatures of agents to declare customs; inadequacies in granting / extending Customs broker code in training and for raising knowledge; support in providing and sharing information; the use of digital signatures of customs agents has not been accepted at specialized agencies; reflections on the relationship between agents and enterprises hiring the agents; reasons that enterprises do not hire customs agent services.