Customs Procedure Reform: Shifting to Risk Management

(Baonghean) - Implementing Resolution No. 19/NQ-CP dated March 12, 2015 of the Government on key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness, the General Department of Customs has resolutely and effectively implemented customs administrative procedure reform.

Standardize and publicly announce

According to the General Department of Customs, the situation and results of the implementation of the work of controlling and simplifying administrative procedures in the past time show that, due to the review, classification, ensuring transparency, standardization, public announcement and listing of administrative procedures, the Customs sector proposed to abolish 18 procedures and replace 2 administrative procedures. Notably, the documents are built in a simple, transparent, non-duplicated direction, and do not require enterprises to submit documents that state agencies already have, do not submit some documents at the customs clearance stage, only keep them for post-clearance inspection... Currently, the sector is reviewing 2 groups of administrative procedures on the export and import of aquatic products; the group of administrative procedures for exporting animals and terrestrial animal products. This review is aimed at simplifying administrative procedures, creating favorable conditions for individuals and organizations when carrying out customs procedures. In addition, the industry has well organized propaganda, introduction, information provision, and timely updates for customs declarants and taxpayers in many diverse forms, especially well organized, regular, and effective dialogue conferences between customs at all levels and the business community - Deputy Director General of the General Department of Customs Nguyen Ngoc Anh said.

Vinh Customs officers carry out national single window customs clearance. Photo: Chau Lan

Regarding the implementation of electronic customs procedures, the Customs sector has mainly applied this method to carry out customs procedures. With the stable operation of the VNACCS/VCIS program, the process of import and export procedures of enterprises has not been interrupted. Currently, all customs agencies nationwide have implemented the VNACCS/VCIS system, and there are tens of thousands of enterprises participating in the implementation of electronic customs procedures, with a total import and export turnover of 129.94 billion USD; 3.18 million declarations. In addition, the application of the national single window mechanism has ensured progress, and has been expanded at 5 international seaports in Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria Vung Tau. The General Department of Customs has also coordinated with relevant ministries to accelerate the implementation of preparations for the implementation of phase II, officially expanding the national single window mechanism to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. In addition, the ASEAN single window mechanism has also been strongly implemented: Vietnam has joined the ASEAN community to complete the shortened ASEAN single window mechanism project, is in the process of negotiating to sign the Protocol on the ASEAN single window legal framework and is preparing to expand the ASEAN single window mechanism project in 2015, moving towards the formation of the ASEAN economic community in early 2016 - Deputy Director General Nguyen Ngoc Anh added.

Promote IT applicationinto business operations

According to the leader of the General Department of Customs, the implementation and support of the operation of the Customs Clearance Monitoring System using barcodes at seaport branches has helped shorten the time for controlling goods through the customs monitoring portal, improve customs supervision and create a premise for connecting with the system of transport and port business agencies. With the electronic payment portal (E-payment), through connecting and exchanging information between the Customs information technology (IT) system with the Treasury and commercial banks, up to now, the Customs sector has signed cooperation agreements to collect import-export taxes electronically with 22 banks with the revenue accounting for more than 63% of the sector's budget revenue.

With the electronic Manifest (E-manifest) reception system for sea transport vehicles, it has facilitated and reduced the burden of preparing a large number of paper documents for businesses, while helping to reduce costs in the customs clearance process. Up to now, the E-manifest system has been basically deployed at all major seaports with cargo traffic reaching over 95%. In addition, the industry has upgraded and put into operation other IT application systems in customs fields such as: electronic customs clearance system, risk management information system, tax accounting system, tax price data management information system, digital signature authentication system, tax exemption, tax reduction, tax refund management information system, etc.

Assessing the impact of applying IT to customs operations, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan said that this work has contributed to reducing paperwork due to customs procedures, especially reducing contact between customs and enterprises thanks to the application of digital signatures, declarations on the system, and information documents attached to the customs dossier integrated in the declaration. The system allows automatic determination of tax rates for each HS code, automatic tax calculation for each product line, pre-declaration of information and multiple information amendments... helping to make the customs procedures transparent, and the system automatically responds to results for enterprises, helping enterprises coordinate with customs agencies to process information quickly and conveniently. In addition, the application of IT also helps improve the capacity of state management of customs, contributing to modern customs management, and is also a driving force for the Customs sector to continue promoting the formation of e-Government - Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan said.

Strengthen post-clearance inspection

According to the Ministry of Finance's assessment, currently, the customs management method based on risk management has, together with the strengthening of post-clearance inspection, strengthening customs control; strengthening the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods, etc., brought many positive results. The industry has also focused on strengthening equipment and technical machinery for customs inspection and supervision (installing 11 container scanning systems at centralized cargo inspection locations and key areas; putting into use 97 luggage and cargo scanning machines; 19 camera surveillance systems, along with radiation safety inspection systems and equipment, etc.). At important border gates (Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Lao Cai, etc.), the Online Command Center is operated, ensuring the supervision of law compliance of enterprises as well as customs officials. Promoting the implementation of administrative discipline, improving the quality of officials and civil servants combined with solutions to reform customs operations has helped reduce contact between customs officials and enterprises, and coordinated to improve specialized management capacity with relevant ministries and branches to resolve problems related to specialized inspections so that customs clearance of import and export goods is correct and fast (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade, etc.).

Some solutions and proposals to improve the effectiveness of administrative procedure reform in the coming time show that the continued simplification of customs procedures and documents needs to be promoted. Through measures such as expanding priority enterprises; implementing the announcement of unified Vietnam import-export commodity codes; implementing pre-confirmation of codes and values ​​of import-export goods; assessing and classifying enterprises, implementing risk management for enterprises instead of shipments, etc., and continuing to expand the implementation of the national single window mechanism and the ASEAN single window mechanism are basic solutions. According to the Ministry of Finance, the sector will expand the implementation of procedures for ships exiting, entering, and transiting at all seaports (including inland seaports)/international river ports for all enterprises operating in the field of transportation and logistics and replacing manual procedures with procedures implemented electronically and with electronic records.

In addition, from now until the end of the year, the industry will focus on expanding the implementation of the remaining administrative procedures in the field of vehicle inspection managed by the Ministry of Transport and the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Environment, and Health. Strive to have 100% of import and export licenses implemented in the national customs single window mechanism by 2020. At the same time, it will improve the effectiveness of risk management (reducing the number of goods physically inspected by 10% - 7%, increasing the effectiveness of inspection and detection of violations by 1% in 2016 (currently 0.4% - 0.8%). Supplement and improve the effectiveness of goods inspection by container scanners; develop a specific implementation plan for administrative procedure reform (short-term and long-term) in line with the Government's implementation roadmap and modernization by 2020.

Red River