Smuggling is still sophisticated in the Quang Ninh border

The Quang Ninh Customs Control force collaborated to destroy violated goods in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh province. Photo by: Quang Ninh Customs

From 2014 to now, Quang Ninh Customs detected and handled 400 cases of smuggling and transporting of goods across borders; and seized violated goods worth tens of billions of vnd. Notably, the nature of the cases have been expanded in scale and methods, and the tricks of smuggler groups have been more sophisticated. Compared to the previous years, in 2016, Quang Ninh Customs prosecuted two cases and transferred to the other agencies 23 cases for prosecution. These results demonstrated the initiative of Quang Ninh Customs Department in building programs and plans and measures to prevent and fight against smuggling and trade fraud and counterfeit goods, as well as fiercely participating to completely handle the cases.

In 2017, the smuggling situation and illegal transportation of goods across the Quang Ninh borders is forecast to continue. According to the Anti-Smuggling and Offences Handling Division (under the Quang Ninh Customs Department), taking advantage of the advantages and smoothness of mechanisms and policies, some companies continue smuggling activities and illegal transport of goods and trade fraud. In the Quang Ninh area, domestic smugglers linked with a number of border residents to transport goods across the border for domestic consumption. In the road border route, coach owners and drivers on the Mong Cai route to the neighboring provinces find ways to hide smuggled goods on vehicles to avoid detection by the Anti- smuggling enforcement force. These activities usually include consumer goods such as cigarettes, foreign wines, fresh food, tiles; Prohibited goods (firecracker, drugs, weapons, support tools, reactionary documents), and petroleum, coal ore, mobile phones, poultry, wildlife, fake goods and goods infringing on Intellectual Property Rights.

Not only on road border areas, but also on the sea areas of Quang Ninh, perpetrators (the captain, crew of entry and exit ships operating in the Vietnam-China route) collect illegal coal, then gather in spontaneous warehouses and yards, and load onto vessels to illegally export to China. More sophisticatedly, a number of enterprises purposely make false declarations on names, origin, type, quantity and HS code; and hide prohibited goods or undeclared goods with high tax rates and conditional imported goods for commercial fraud.

In order to fight and effectively prevent acts of smuggling and commercial fraud, and counterfeit goods, in 2017, Quang Ninh Customs Department continues to seriously publicize and implement in a timely fashion the directions of all levels, sectors and the province. The leader of the Quang Ninh Customs Department has directed units to comply with Customs procedures, improve detection rates on violations through inspection in Customs clearance for exported and imported goods. Concurrently, for each work position, Customs officers and civil servants need to strengthen close inspection and supervision for businesses and key commodities and focus on vulnerable fields such as: fraud on origin, HS code, quantity and value, and closely inspect and monitor passengers who illegally enter and exit many times without apparent purpose.

Quang Ninh Customs seize 8kg of smuggled fireworks VCN – On February 6, 2017, Mong Cai Customs Branch discovered and seized 8kg of smuggled fireworks ...

At the road and sea borders, the Customs branches actively organize forces to monitor the situation of key areas; collecting information and forecasts for advising and appropriately fighting and preventing plans. Implementing the coordination and information exchange among units under the Customs Department and the functional agencies in the province, and seriously deploying signed collaboration regulations and plans. Besides performing inspections, Quang Ninh Customs focused on building a specialized force under the scheme of the General Department of Vietnam Customs; chaired to organize as well as send officials to the operational training courses on Customs control and violation settlement and new Decree of the Government relating to the penalty for administrative violations and enforcement for compliance of Customs administrative decisions. After having the knowledge and working experience, Customs officers and civil servants continue to retrain at units; publicize and popularize legal policies and persuade people and businesses not to participate and lend a hand with smugglers and illegal transporters of goods across the border, and actively participate in crime reporting.