Bac Ninh Customs: Accelerate collection of State revenue

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Operational activities at the Thai Nguyen Customs Branch of the Bac Ninh Customs Department. Photo: T. Trang.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Tien, the Deputy Head of Operational Division in the Bac Ninh Customs Department said that compared to 2015, the current import and export turnover under the control of Bac Ninh Customs Department has not increased significantly. However, the amount of goods attracting import tax has decreased compared to the previous time, which led to a slight decrease in State budget revenue.

Specifically, the imported commodities which largely contribute to the State revenue are: components and mobile phones, steel, electronic components, plastic material items, rubber and machinery for investment projects. Chemicals and organic solvents have increased in quantity, but the tax rates and value of these commodities is not really high.

In addition, some companies with a large amount of revenue in 2015 have made plans to reduce their production and stop opening Customs declarations in the Bac Ninh Customs Department such as Thai Hung Trade Joint Stock Company (the State budget revenue in 2015 was 156 billion vnd), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Thai Nguyen-Vietnam-the HCM City Branch (the State budget revenue in 2015 was 98 billion vnd).

Another factor is that many imported commodities with a high value and a high tax rate are implementing Customs declarations by export processing enterprises such as paints, electronics, steel and clothing materials, which does not attract the import and export tax under current regulations.

Besides, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Tien, the Deputy Head of Operational Division in the Bac Ninh Customs Department said that the impact of tariff cuts under international commitments such as the WTO, ASEAN (ATIGA), ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Korea, ASEAN - Japan, Vietnam-Korea, Vietnam-Japan in which Vietnam has participated to reduce the tax rate of some commodities to 0%, has led to a decrease in State budget revenue.

In order to resolve these difficulties, the leaders of the Bac Ninh Customs Department have directed to strive to accomplish the task assigned by the Ministry of Finance with the State budget revenue of 6,500 billion vnd. Accordingly, the Department has implemented a series of solutions to collect revenues, including: Creating favourable conditions for enterprises, reducing Customs clearance time and rapidly releasing goods. Specifically, the Department has carried out a number of laws effectively, including Customs Law 2014; Law on export and import tax 2015; the Law amending and supplementing some articles of the Law on VAT and Special Consumption Tax and the Law on Tax management. In particular, the Department has actively publicized new policies to enterprises to help them understand and voluntarily abide by their tax obligations.

Along with that, the Bac Ninh Customs Department has directed subordinate units to strengthen tax debt collection and collaborate with commercial banks to guide taxpayers to pay taxes through the banking system. Besides, the Department has expanded the collaboration with commercial banks and the State Treasury in the handling of debts. The Bac Ninh Customs Department also focuses on collecting information, analyzing and assessing risks for providing information to the risk management system. Customs declarations in 2016 have been solved in a timely fashion. There is a close coordination between the Operational Team and the Tax Management Team of each Customs Branch in tax collection and debt settlement. To 11th November 2016, the Bac Ninh Customs Department collected approximately 1 billion vnd of tax arrears from declarations in 2016.

One of the solutions that the Bac Ninh Customs Department has implemented well is Customs post-clearance audits. To 31st October 2016, the Customs Branch of post-clearance audits under the Bac Ninh Customs Department checked 40 companies and collected nearly 17 billion vnd to the State budget.

In addition, the Department has also strengthened Customs control, anti-smuggling, anti-commercial fraud and risk management in the province, focusing on key commodities with a high tax rate; building enterprises’ profiles to assess the level of law compliance of enterprises. Accordingly, the Department has promoted political education, maintained discipline, arranged staff with a suitable position; and implemented the "Declaration of Customer services" effectively.

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By applying a series of flexible solutions, the monthly State budget revenues of the third quarter and the fourth quarter have gradually increased. In the first 6 months of 2016, the average monthly State revenue of the Bac Ninh Customs Department was only about 500 billion vnd. However, in July, August, September and October, the average monthly State revenue was from 650 billion vnd to 740 billion vnd. This has helped the Bac Ninh Customs Department accomplish the assigned target of State budget revenue.