Revising Circular 38: Strict control of declaration cancellation and delivery of goods for preservation

	New points on Customs procedures in the Circular amending Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC
	The amended Circular 38 will take effect at the same time with Decree 59
	Final review of the draft Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTC

Procedures for the declaration cancellation and delivery of goods for preservation shall be electronized. In the photo: Customs clearance at Gia Thuy Customs Branch (Hanoi). Photo: N.Linh.

Procedures for the declaration cancellation are transparent

Clause 1, Article 22 of the Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC stipulates cases of the declaration cancellation by the Customs including the declarations beyond the expiry of 15-day time limit, but Customs declarants have not taken goods to the Customs supervision area or have not carried out Customs inspection procedures with the Customs. According to the drafting committee, the current policies have no regulations on the import goods which have not been declared and fulfilled the Customs procedures but have the demand of re-export. Therefore, the revised circular shall specify cases of declaration cancellation and electronization of procedures for the cancellation.

Specifically, the cases of the declaration cancellation after the expiry of carrying out customs procedures include: For the import customs declaration, after expiry of 15-day time limit from the registration date of the import declaration, but imported goods have not arrived at the border gate.

For export goods declarations, after the expiry of the 15-day time limit from the registration date of export declarations, the goods are exempt from document examination and physical inspection but have not been taken to the Customs supervision area at export border gate; after the expiry of 15-day time limit from the registration date of the export declaration, the goods are subject to document examination but the Customs declarants have not yet submitted the Customs dossiers or have completed the Customs procedures but the goods have not been taken to the Customs supervision area at export border gate; after the expiry of 15-day time limit from the registration date of export declaration, goods are subject to physical inspection but the Customs declarants have not submitted the Customs dossiers and presented the goods for Customs inspection.

Cases of declaration cancellation upon the request by Customs declarants include: Customs export declarations have completed the customs procedures and the goods have been taken into the Customs supervision area but the Customs declarants request to take it back for repair or recycling; On-spot export Customs declarations have been cleared and goods have been released but the exporters or importers cancel export and import transactions; Customs declarations have been cleared and goods have been released but have not been actually exported; Customs import and export declarations have wrong information and are not allowed to an additional declaration, except import declarations have been cleared, and goods have been released and passed the Customs supervision area or import Customs declarations have been cleared and goods have been released and actually exported.

Other cases of the cancellation include: import and export declarations have been registered but have not been cleared due to the E-custom data processing system meeting problems and replacement paper Customs declarations have been cleared, goods have been released and taken to storage for preservation; Import and export declarations have been registered but failed to meet regulations on specialized inspection ; after handling violations by additional sanction which is forced to re-export and destruction.

Procedures for declaration cancellation will be applied to IT for electronization. In case of cancellation upon the application of Customs declarants, the application shall be sent by electronic method (not using paper application); The Customs shall check the application and respond within 8 working hours.

For the cancellation by Customs, the Customs shall review and cancel expired declarations within one day from the expiry date and inform the Customs declarants via the system.

Strictly controlling the delivery of goods for preservation

Current regulations allow the delivery of goods for preservation upon the request by enterprises or specialized management agencies. The Customs declarants are responsible for preserving the goods, conditions for warehouses are not specified. The Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38/2015 / TT-BTCwill clearly guide the provisions of Point b, Clause 3, Article 33 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP, regarding warehouse delivery of goods for preservation, which must be specified in address and separated with the surrounding areas.

Accordingly, the amendments and supplements to the delivery of goods for preservation for goods subject to food quality and safety inspection are prescribed as follows: the case where specialized inspection agencies appoint and Customs declarants request to take the goods for preservation (electronic form) attached with the written application for specialized inspection certified by the specialized inspection agency. Within one working hour, the Customs shall certify the permission to take goods for preservation at the authorized address shown on the application for specialized inspection.

The case where the customs declarants request to take the goods to place of preservation of the Customs declarants, they must submit the request (electronic form) attached with the application for specialized inspection certified by the specialized inspection agency. When submitting an application for taking goods to the place of preservation for the first time, the customs declarants shall submit the customs documents proving that the place of preservation is a warehouse with clear address and separated from surroundings in compliance with the provisions of Point b, Clause 3, Article 33 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP. The customs will inform the declarants of the results within 2 hours.

Regarding the management of goods delivered for preservation, the Circular provides that when the goods are brought to the place of inspection or the place of preservation, the customs declarant must notify when the goods arrive at the destination to the customs. In case of force majeure, the goods cannot be brought to the place of inspection or place of preservation in time, the customs declarant must take necessary measures to ensure the original status of goods and immediately inform the customs via telephone hotline on the Portal of General Department of Customs.

During the preservation of goods, if the specialized inspection agency requests to take the goods to install and operate for specialized inspection, the customs declarant shall have to notify such to the Customs Branch where the declarations have been registered in documents before the installation and operation.

Regarding the inspection of goods preservation at enterprises' warehouses, the Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC stipulates that the Customs office which manages the goods preservation place shall bear responsibility for inspecting the preservation from receiving the notification of the customs declarant on the time when the goods arrive at the preservation place until the customs clearance or goods are released. The customs Department where the goods preservation place is registered shall assign to its subordinate unit to supervise and monitor the goods preservation situation.

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In the case where there are grounds to determine that the goods do not ensure original status at the request of the Customs department where the declaration has been registered, the customs department managing the preservation place shall have to inspect and handle them according to the provisions of law.