Typical violations on the Northern borderline

	About 180 tons of oil without legal documents seized
	Implementing tasks for social-economic development in Northern Midlands and Mountainous region
	Unit 1 of Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department seize 214 cases of violation

Taking advantage of trade facilitation policies

Head of the Anti-Smuggling Enforcement Team in the North (Team 1, the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, General Department of Customs) Bui Trong Thanh said that through information collection and recent seizures, we can see that some enterprises have taken advantage of trade facilitation policies to commit fraudulent acts in the import and export of goods.

Typical methods, tricks and signs of violation include misrepresenting names, quantities, types and codes of goods to mix banned goods, and conditional imports, with legally imported goods for transportation to Vietnam for consumption or export.

In addition, some enterprises have arbitrarily changed the packaging and labels at the border gates or gathering places for centralized inspection and supervision of exported and imported goods in order to legalize them but the labels do not show full information as described.

Infringing goods are mainly high-tax goods, conditional import and export goods, goods on the list of goods banned from export and import; minerals; foreign currency, gold; consumer goods; alcohol, tobacco; cattle, poultry, cattle and poultry products; firecrackers of all kinds; goods temporarily imported for re-export, goods in border gate transfer and goods deposited in bonded warehouses.

Actively fighting violations

“Facing the above violations, following the direction of the leaders of the General Department of Customs, leaders of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, the team regularly works with units in the area (the border gate Customs Branch, Customs Enforcement Team) to strengthen supervision and inspection of shipments suspected of smuggling, trade fraud and high-risk shipments to promptly report to the leaders to have solutions. Thereby, the team has presided over and coordinated with others to handle many violations," said Captain Bui Trong Thanh.

For example, successfully handling Special Case GT113. As a result, on March 18, 2022, the team chaired and coordinated with Mong Cai Border Gate Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department) to inspect a shipment of 26,540 kg of rosewood worth VND6.6 billion of Anh Phap Viet Company Limited.

The physical inspection and the customs documents and the CITES permit application show that the company misrepresented the quantity and type of goods to illegally export 28 m3 of rosewood from Vietnam to China. The Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department has issued a decision to prosecute a criminal case and transfer the files and exhibits to the investigation police agency of Nghe An province.

In addition, the team investigated and verified and advised the leaders of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department to issue a decision to prosecute and transfer the documents and exhibits to the Lao Cai Province Investigation Police agency on the case of two companies (INTERSERCO VCI Joint Stock Company, Trung Tin Trading Company Limited) for the crime of smuggling.

As a result, the two companies had acts of not declaring, falsely declaring names of goods and importing goods banned from import, using fake documents. The value of infringing goods of INTERSERCO VCI JSC is over VND2 billion and of Trung Tin Trading Company Limited is over VND4 billion.

Regarding the task performance in the future, Mr. Bui Trong Thanh said, in 2023, the unit will continue to strengthen strict control of key areas, especially before, during and after the Lunar New Year, and focus on banned goods and conditional import goods.

Further, the team will actively collect information and data on the system and at the locality, from units and authorities managing the area, etc to analyze information and identify key areas, promptly detect signs of violations and effectively combat violations.

Moreover, the team will actively coordinate with professional units inside and outside the Department, local customs units and authorities outside the sector to share information, and arrange officers and means to fight against violations.