The portal serving specialized inspections at Cat Lai comes into full play

Deputy Prime-Minister, Mr. Vu Duc Dam (on the right) is monitoring operations at Cat Lai specialized inspection station. Photo: T.H

According to the Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Customs, Mr. Dinh Ngoc Thang, on the basis of coordination regulations signed between Ho Chi Minh City Customs and 13 specialized inspection related agencies and opinions contributed by these agencies and traders, his Department of Customs has actively developed and piloted the portal for specialized inspection at Cat Lai port since June 15, 2016 and at Tan Son Nhat Airport since July 12, 2016 for serving specialized inspection operations

This is a program connecting Customs authorities, specialized inspection agencies, Sai Gon New Port Corporation and traders for the purpose of facilitating all stakeholders.

This program helps related agencies and traders monitor the specialized inspection process of each consignment, consisting of steps such as registering, locating the consignment, sampling, releasing goods for preservation, notifying the inspections’ results, payment and clearance.

The portal for specialized inspection has been designed to be user-friendly, convenient for access and ensure system security on the basis of digital signatures as regulated in the Law on electronic transactions Concerned agencies with their functions, duties and competence would update information, track consignments and process information on the portal for reduction of paper requirements, pushing clearance, handling arising problems in a timely manner with the aim of complying with specialized inspection legislation.

From the source of border checkpoints, many obstacles have been addressed since the portal for specialized inspection was put into operation. For instance, as regulated by the Law on Customs, specialized inspection registration is not required to be a document in a Customs dossier and in fact Customs does not know which agency is the leading one in implementing specialized inspection for each case. Thus, Customs is not able to coordinate with that agency to monitor the consignment until it is received by the trader for preservation. The portal helps solve this issue. The consignments are moved to the right places for sampling. Thanks to information about the consignments sent in advance by traders, Sai Gon New Port Corporation would move containers to suitable places for sampling. Traders do not have to spend time waiting for the containers transported out of the container sites.

Electronic procedures operation of goods to be released for preservation:

In the light of the prevailing provisions, traders can bring home goods for preservation if they forward their proposals in the stipulated form to the heads of Customs branches for consideration and determination. The approval and determination is processed on the portal, minimizing documents in Customs dossiers and saving time for traders.

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Especially, using the portal helps shorten clearance time for consignments to undergo specialized inspection. Upon the specialized inspection’s findings, agencies in charge would publish information on the portal. Basing on the findings on the portal, Customs administration would clear goods immediately in cases where the consignment meets all the requirements of inspection. Notification in writing would be sent to Customs by specialized inspection agencies for recording.

According to Mr. Ngo Minh Thuan, Deputy Director General of Sai Gon New Port Corporation, the use of the portal will cut down paper, helping Customs with immediate results of specialized inspection for goods clearance. At present, the movement time is reduced by 2 hours. Traders can receive their goods upon physical inspection 0.8 days faster than before (from 5 days to 4.2 days)

Tracking consignments from registering for specialized inspection to being cleared enable associated parties to know the consignments’ status for timely solutions in case of arising offences.

The portal contributes to reduce requirements of paper in Customs dossiers via electronic operation of procedures to release goods for preservation, shortening clearance time at each step such as moving containers to designated places for sampling (at seaports), and approving to release goods for preservation and clearance. The total amount of clearance time will decrease by at least 2 days. Costs of container arrangement and warehouses reduce. Especially, traders’ opportunity costs reduces significantly, which promotes their competitiveness.

Perceiving the above mentioned benefits, in addition to specialized inspection agencies which are located at the two aforesaid stations, other specialized inspection agencies and nearly 500 enterprises with over 800 declarations have exploited the portal recently.

Nevertheless, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Customs confirmed the effort made by his administration, related agencies and organizations could only tackle the floating ice of difficulties. The causes of problems in terms of specialized inspection of imports and exports have not yet been resolved.