Blocking smuggling through the transit goods: Must remove the "bogus" businesses

The goods banned from import were discovered in the transit shipment at the Cat Lai port in June 2017. Photo: T.H.

Taking advantage of transit to smuggle

Deputy Director of the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City Pham Quoc Hung said that in the recent time, the area of Ho Chi Minh City appeared

that the subjects took advantage of to the ventilation mechanism of policy on the transit goods and the goods temporarily for re-export for smuggling. The

enterprises only declared representative names of consignment when carrying out the customs procedures and did not declare other goods in their consignment (including the goods banned from import, the import goods under conditions and goods with high tax rates). Initially, the objects declared the name of people receiving the goods in Vietnam, however, when the authorities found the suspicion or coordinated in inspection, the enterprises adjusted the manifest with names of with the goods, the recipient in Cambodia and carried out the customs clearance in the form of transit goods. In the of transportation of goods in transit, the enterprises could withdraw goods for sale in Vietnam, or intrude into Vietnam through the border trails, the authorities detected and arrested some cases.

According to Mr. Le Nguyen Linh, Deputy Head of the Customs Sub-Department of Saigon Port Zone 1, there were 41,312 the customs declarations of the transit goods in 2016 and there were 28,920 declarations of transit goods at Cat Lai Port.

According to Deputy Director of Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City, Le Dinh Loi, with a large workload, large areas, anti-smuggling, and trade frauds were difficult and complicated in these areas. In addition, in fact, the number of detected and arrested cases was huge but the lead subjects and the real owner of the goods have been arrested.

According to the analysis of the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City, the situation of smuggling, illegal transportation of goods in the form of transit goods, the goods temporarily imported for re-exported increased recently due to a number of reasons, such as: There has not been good coordination strict control of the transport of goods in transit; The enterprises have taken advantage of the liberalization of the current regime and policy of transit goods, the goods temporarily imported for re-export, in the customs procedures: declaration of representative goods, sealing, transport...; The electronic customs clearance program, system still has some shortcomings...

The HCMC Customs Department arrested nearly 1.4 tons of ivory in a transit shipment declared asphalt on September 6th, 2017. Photo: T.H.

Must remove the "bogus" businesses

An important trick that has been discovered by the Customs forces in smuggling cases through the type of transit was that many “bogus” enterprises were named to carry out the customs procedures for these shipments. According to Deputy Director of Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City, Le Dinh Loi, the enterprise establishment was to open so many subjects took advantage of it. There are those who take advantage of it to establish many enterprises to commit acts of smuggling and trade fraud. The Customs did know the enterprise establishment process, they only based on information in the customs declaration of the enterprises to clear the goods. When detecting the violations, the Customs office extended the investigation to verify that the enterprises had not operated at the business registration address.

Mr. Tran Viet Thang, Head of the Customs Control Team – the HCMC Customs Department, said that through the process of verifying the violating enterprises, the agency found many cases that the business owners (legal representatives) were not the real owners, were not aware of the enterprise establishment. The subjects took advantage of the record of the mental patients being treated in the hospitals; the students are applying for jobs; the people lost identity cards… to set up many enterprises, having the same address to get the legal entity of these enterprises to commit smuggling and trade frauds, especially in the past time, they took advantage of the type of transiting for the importation of prohibited goods to consume in the home.

"When looking up the name of a company on the taxpayers' information system, it still operated, but when arriving, there was no such address or the company did not operate in the registered address… Therefore, the verification for the violation subjects is very difficult when the enterprises evade the Customs deliberately. From this fact, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City has recommended repeatedly that the functional agencies should manage and monitor closely the business activities of the enterprises as well as should verify the relevant information before issuing the businesses registration certificates” - Deputy Director of the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City Mr. Pham Quoc Hung suggested.

Chief of the Standing Office of National Steering Committee 389, Mr. Dam Thanh The said that the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City had the plans and specific solutions actively, and detected over 1,000 violations, of which, the number of criminal prosecutions doubled over the whole of 2016. However, Mr. Dam Thanh The said that the cases were discovered only in the cases of arrest, prosecution, while the investigation and arrest of the head subjects were limited. ‘The struggle to remove the root of the smuggled groups and lines requires the tight coordination of the functional agencies from the detection agency to the investigating agency…” Mr. Dam Thanh The emphasized.

According to Mr. The, unless destroying the subjects founding the “bogus” enterprises, they would find other tricks, other places to continue smuggling when the old ones were discovered. According to the above fact, the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City should count specific figures and show the typical cases to provide a basis for working, petition to the competent authority to correct and supplement suitably.