Shortening the specialized inspection time: Customs makes efforts and takes connectivity initiative

	Removing specialised inspection obstacles for the transportation field
	State Treasury implements over 300 specialized inspections
	Enterprises still face difficulties in specialized inspections

Customs officers of Mong Cai Border Gate Customs Branch under Quang Ninh Customs Department inspect imported goods. Photo: Quang Hung.

Proposing many important solutions

In the "Doing Business 2018" report published by the World Bank (WB) in October 2017, in the indicators of "Cross-Border Trade Transactions”, the component indicators on time and cost of export have hadpositive changes compared to the previous year. Time for cross-border imports is 132 hours, down 6 hours from 2016,and time of cross-border exports is 105 hours, down 3 hours from 2016. Cost of implementation of Customs procedures at the border also decreased by US $19.

As a result, Vietnam's cross-border clearance of goods has reduced significantly, ranked in top four in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam).

Analysis of these indicators, Mr. Kim Long Bien, Deputy Head of the Customs Reform and Modernization Division said that total cross-border clearance time of imported and exported goods was subject to the responsibility of both the Customs and other specialized management agencies. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the time for Customs procedures, while the other ministries and sectors are responsible for the specialized inspection time. Over the past years, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) has made great efforts to implement solutions to reduce the time under its responsibility (accounting for only 28% of the Customs clearance time). In addition, the General Department of Customs has also been working closely with other ministries to make a fundamental change on specialized inspection methods.

Mr.Ngo Minh Hai, Deputy Director General of Customs Supervision and Control Department (General Department of Customs), said that the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs) actively coordinated with specialized management ministries to implement solutions to reform specialized management and inspections

In 2015, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) had identified shortcomings and inadequacies of specialized management and inspections; proposed the Prime Minister issue Decision 2026 / QD-TTg of 17th November 2015 on the approval of the Scheme on solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of specialized inspections for imports and exports and assigned the ministries and sectors to carry out solutions mentioned in the Scheme; especially, the listing of 87 documents was causing difficulties for import and export activities. By 2017, according to the latest statistics, ministries and sectors amended and supplemented 66 out of 87 documents; has been amending and supplementing 21 documents under Decision 2026 / QD-TTg. This was the result that the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Customs) has achieved from regularly proposing and urging as well as working directly with the ministries and branches in the amendment and supplement to legal documents on specialized inspections.

In order to implement the Government's and the Prime Minister's solutions in a timely fashion, in 2017, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) made the important suggestion forthe necessity of a unit to bein charge of monitoring and urging the implementation of the guidelines in the ministries and sectors.

Specifically, in Report No. 43 / BC-BTC dated 12th May 2017 on the implementation and results therein after of Decision No. 2026 / QD-TTg and Resolution 19-2016 / NQ-CP on specialized inspections for imports and exports, the Ministry of Finance has proposed the Prime Minister to assign the Government’s working group to monitor and urge the progress of development and improvement of institutions related to the amendment and supplementation to the legal documents on specialized management and inspections stated in Decision 2026 / QD-TTg and Resolution 19 / NQ-CP on tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and improve national competitiveness.

This was the first time the Government’s working group has directly worked with ministries and sectors to grasp and urge the reform of specialized inspections for imports and exports. Thereby, the working group has reported to the Government inadequaciesandcomplicated administrative procedures that made it difficult for businesses.

Taking initiative in connectivity

In addition to proposing ministries and branches to implement solutions to reform the procedures of specialized inspections, in 2017, under the changes of the new list of imports and exports, the General Department of Customs has presided over and collaborated with ministries and sectors to organize concentrated working periods to apply HS codes for the list of specialized goods. According to Ngo Minh Hai, Vietnam's 2017 List of Imports and Exports (issued with Ministry of Finance's Circular No. 65/2017 / TT-BTC) was detailed into 10,813 rows at the 8th level.

Compared to the AHTN 2012, the AHTN 2017 has increased to 1,255 rows, retained the English description and codes of 7,810 rows, combined 682 rows; separated codes, trans-coded and inserted rows with new descriptions of 2,321 rows. Therefore, the requirement was to review and standardize the list of goods subject to specialized management and inspections in accordance with the changes in the HS codes of many rows in the list of imports and exports 2017.

In October 2017, the General Department of Customs chaired and coordinated with some ministries and sectors to hold concentrated working periods to apply HS codes for 50 lists of specialized goods managed by ministries: Agriculture and Rural Development; Culture, Sports and Tourism; Health, Industry and Trade, and Government Cipher Committee. Accordingly, the ministries shall announce the related lists of goods under their management.

In December 2017, the General Department of Customs continued to coordinate with the Ministries: of Agriculture and Rural Development; Industry and Trade; Health; Culture, Sports and Tourism; National Defence; Construction; Science and Technology and theState Bank to review the implementation of the tasks in Resolution 19/2017 / NQ-CP and Decision No. 2026 / QD-TTg on specialized inspections for imports and exports.

In which, focusing on looking back on legal documents which wereinadequate, complicated and fail to meet the guidance of the Government and the Prime Minister; reviewing imports and exports subject to many procedures, many forms of management and inspections andat the same time to propose solutions for renovation. Also, reviewing and applying the HS codes for lists of specialized goods of the ministries in line with Vietnam's List of Imports and Exports which was issued together with Circular 65/2017 / TT-BTC.

To further strengthen the reform of specialized inspections in the ministries, Ngo Minh Hai said that in the future, the Customs would continue to host and coordinate with the ministries and sectors to review the exports which are implementing many procedures of specialized inspections at the same time, thereby proposing solutions to renovate the specialized inspections in the direction of reducing overlapping documents and reducing the number of specialized inspection agencies for some imports; .

Besides, the customs would chair and collaborate with the ministries and sectors to review and codify the management policies of imports and exports for Customs clearancevia Vietnam’s automated Customs Clearance System VNACCS / VCIS; and continue to collaborate with specialized management ministries to carry out Decision No 2185 / QD-TTg dated 14/11/2016 by the Prime Minister on approving the master plan to implement the National Single Window and ASEAN Single Window for the period 2016-2020

Specifically, in order to improve the capacity and efficiency of specialized inspections for imports and exports at border gates, the General Department of Customs has reported to the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Prime Minister to assign it to pilot the inspection for the efficiency, quality and standards of food hygiene and safety standards for some imports and exports.

The Customs Department of Goods Verification (the General Department of Customs) has piloted the receipt of a number of commodities (vegetables, fertilizers, iron, steel, and milk); equipped with outside testing labs (laboratory cars) to serve the specialized inspections in the Northern border provinces (Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai). Furthermore, the General Department of Customs has upgraded equipment, facilities and provided more officers in charge of specialized inspections to the Customs Department of Goods Verification and current Customs Branches of Goods Verification.

It is required to clarify the specialized inspection time VCN – To implement the objective of reducing Customs clearance time, the time under the responsibility of ...

Moreover, the General Department would collaborate with specialized management ministries to determine the need for investment in equipment and facilities for areas with a large circulation of imports and exports subject to inspection of quality, food hygiene and safety. Currently, a draft on pilot specialized inspections at Customs offices is being prepared to be submitted to the Prime Minister.

With the efforts of ministries and sectors in implementing the Government’s guidance, the business community expects a breakthrough in the reform of specialized inspections for imports and exports in the coming time.