The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Truong Hoa Binh: The fight against smuggling is not commensurate with reality

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The Deputy Prime Minister - the Head of the National Steering Committee 389, Mr Truong Hoa Binh presides over an online conference. Photo: Q. H.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Finance – the Standing Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee 389, Mr. Dinh Tien Dung; the Director General of Vietnam Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can; and representatives of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Science and Technology; and other representatives from 63 online points in Vietnam.

At the conference, a report on 2016 performance and the first quarter of 2017 by the National Steering Committee 389 was expressed by lively images related to smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting. Specifically, on the land borders, there have been many cases related to illegal transportation of narcotics, fireworks, explosives, wild animals and products of rare and endangered animals, foreign wines, foreign cigarettes, sugar, clothes, electronics, refrigerators, food, poultry products, cattle and consumer goods.

In addition, on the sea areas of the North East, the Central and the South West of Vietnam, there have been smuggling activities related to petroleum, oil and cigarettes. At international airports, there have been smuggling cases related to narcotics, wildlife products and high value commodities.

In the domestic market, the violations on prices, production and trading of expired goods, counterfeit goods, or goods with a poor quality and unclear origin have still occurred openly. The organizations and individuals producing, trading and consuming illegal chemicals, food additives and agricultural materials with banned substances have been really sophisticated and complex, negatively affecting people's health.

As assigned by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Truong Hoa Binh; the Minister of Finance - the Standing Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee 389, Mr. Dinh Tien Dung chaired presentations from representatives.

The representatives of Steering Committee 389 of provinces and cities such as Ha Noi; Ho Chi Minh Ctiy; Son La, Lang Son; Quang Ninh and Long An delivered their speech at the conference. The localities agreed with the contents of the report and highly appreciated the role and operations of the National Steering Committee 389 in the fight against smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting.

However, based on the performance of assigned tasks, local authorities showed many difficulties, inadequacies and limitations. Accordingly, local authorities proposed to the Government and relevant Ministries to amend and supplement mechanisms and policies related to the competence to handle administrative violations and criminal cases in major smuggling cases. In addition, they proposed to have more functional forces, investment and procurement of equipment and facilities in order to meet the requirements and tasks in the coming period.

At the conference, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Truong Hoa Binh noted the efforts of Ministries and local authorities in the fight against smuggling in line with Resolution No. 41. In 2016, the Steering Committee 389 and relevant Ministries directed functional forces at all levels to detect and handle 223,262 cases (an increase of 8.23%). The collection of fines for administrative violations, tax inspections and examination into the State budget reached 21,556.3 billion vnd (an increase of 59.23% compared to 2015) and prosecuted 1,561 cases with 1,863 perpetrators and violators.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Truong Hoa Binh also bluntly acknowledged that the results of anti-smuggling activities were not commensurate with the actual situation, current smuggling activities, commercial fraud and counterfeiting, which are complicated in terms of scale, nature and scope.

Specifically, smuggled cigarettes, counterfeit and unknown fertilizers have been still sold publicly in many places. The situation of smuggling and illegal transportation of commodities in key northern border areas such as the North and Southwest of Vietnam including Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City have been still complicated, negatively affecting economic development, social and national security and public health.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the cause of the above-mentioned issues derived from objective factors such as complicated border terrain, poor working conditions and facilities but basically derived from subjective factors.

Smuggling is still "hot" on the routes VCN- Although the functional forces in the country detected and handled hundreds of thousands of cases, the ...

The subjective factors included the role of leadership and direction in many agencies, State authorities and localities were not really fierce, lacked a lot of inspections with ineffective implementation of the Direction of the National Steering Committee 389. Besides, a few of Heads of agencies State authorities and localities were irresponsible in anti-smuggling, anti-commercial fraud and anti-counterfeiting.