Bac Ninh Customs committees to listen and share difficulties with enterprises

Director of Bac Ninh Customs Department Tran Duc Hung delivered the opening speech. Photo: Quang Hùng

Attending the dialogue were representatives of the Legal Department, Import-Export Duty Department, the Customs Control and Supervision Department, and Risk Management Department (General Department of Vietnam Customs), together with representatives of departments and branches in Bac Ninh province and more than 100 enterprises operating import and export activities in the management areas (including Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen provinces).

It is known that Bac Ninh Customs is currently managing 5,900 enterprises engaging in import and export activities in 3 provinces: Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen.

In 2022, import-export turnover through Bac Ninh Customs reached an impressive figure of US$176.63 billion. In particular, export turnover reached US$99.02 billion, and import turnover reached US$77.61 billion, bringing the Bac Ninh Customs Department to the top of the country in import and export turnover.

Speaking at the conference's opening, Director of Bac Ninh Customs Department Tran Duc Hung said that the unit currently manages 13 out of 79 Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs), leading the whole sector in the number of AEOs. Regarding the channeling rate at Bac Ninh Customs in 2022, for the green channel, it reached 73.42%, which is higher than the average rate of the sector; the yellow channel reached 24.9%; the red channel reached 1.68%.

"It means that for every 100 containers of goods imported and exported through Bac Ninh Customs, there are 1.68 containers subject to physical inspection of goods. It demonstrated the unit's efforts in the facilitation of the Customs sector in general and Bac Ninh Customs Department in particular", Director Tran Duc Hung said.

View of the discussion at the conference. Photo: Quang Hùng

2023 is forecasted to be a difficult year for the world economy in general and Vietnam in particular, as shown by customs declarations data and import and export turnover arising through the Bac Ninh Customs Department in the first quarter of 2023, which all fell sharply.

Specifically, as of March 23, the import-export turnover in the province reached approximately US$34 billion (reaching 83% over the same period in 2022); revenue collection reached VND 2,343 billion (reaching 16% of the ordinance target, equaling 73% compared to the same period in 2022). Besides that, the total number of declarations reached 22,753, equaling 88% over the same period in 2022.

"Through working and finding enterprises' production and business activities, most enterprises have faced difficulties in orders. In particular, there are large enterprises that suffered from a reduction of orders by 56% compared to the same period. These are specific data demonstrating the impact of the global economic recession on enterprises in the area managed by Bac Ninh Customs Department," Mr. Tran Duc Hung said.

Aware of the above difficulties, on behalf of customs officers and employees of Bac Ninh Customs Department, Mr. Tran Duc Hung also committed to continuing to support and facilitate the business community to comply with customs law, strengthen reform of administrative procedures, customs modernization, continue to strive to reduce the time for cargo clearance.

Enterprises attending the conference participated in the discussion. Photo: Quang Hùng

In the discussion at the conference, representatives of departments and professional departments under the General Department of Vietnam Customs and representatives of units under the Bac Ninh Customs Department received and answered many problems of enterprises directly.

For example, the procedures for export goods are products manufactured from sample materials of export processing enterprises, destroying goods imported under type A31 of export processing enterprises, and destroying raw materials that have not been put into production.

Also, at this conference, representatives of the Risk Management Department and the Import-Export Duty Department introduced several new legal policies on customs, export duty and import duty.

Specifically, businesses heard about the purpose of the Pilot Program to support businesses to comply with customs laws voluntarily.

It included trade facilitation and cost reduction for businesses, supporting enterprises to limit and overcome obstacles and difficulties in carrying out customs procedures. Furthermore, proactively take measures to prevent and avoid violations of the customs law, improve the self-compliance with laws of enterprises and establish a reliable partnership between Customs authorities and enterprises in import, export and transit activities.