Circular 38 to be revised to fix loopholes in the Law

	Comments for draft revised Circular No. 38 frankly received
	Further completing Customs policies for processing and production for exports
	Consultations for Southern Customs on draft Circular amending Circular 38

Enterprises perform Customs procedures at Cat Lai port. Photo: Thu Hoa.

Supplementary declarations must be verified

The Deputy Director of the Customs Supervision and Management Department, Mr. Au Anh Tuan said that current regulations did not include provisions on additional declarations in the case where enterprises declared goods inaccurately. In fact, many perpetrators have taken advantage of loopholes in provisions on additional declarations to wrongly declare the name of goods, codes, types and quantities, in order to evade taxes. If Customs officer conduct examination of Customs declarations of enterprises, these enterprises shall make supplementary declarations to legalize their smuggling activities. Therefore, it is necessary to provide measures to facilitate the business community and prevent violations related to smuggling.

In order to ensure fairness in business and law enforcement, the drafting Committee has planned to add specific regulations on supplementary declarations in the case where enterprises want to add information in Customs declarations. Specifically, after enterprises are verified under the Law, they will be accepted for supplementary declarations. In the case where enterprises cannot prove that the goods are sent wrongly by accident, they will be punished and handled for smuggling activities according to the provisions of the Law.

The cancellation of Customs declarations to be limited

Clause 1, Article 22 of Circular 38 stipulates that in some cases, Customs officers may cancel Customs declarations of enterprises after the expiry of 15 days or if Customs declarants have no goods to transport into the Customs supervision area, or if they have not completed Customs declarations with Customs officers. According to the Customs Supervision and Management Department, in practice, some enterprises are aware of the results of Customs classification after opening Customs declarations. Then they deliberately open new declarations; or require a new declaration to cancel the previous one. Thus, the cancellation of previous declarations has also helped businesses legitimize fraudulent activities.

In addition, current documents have no regulations on imported goods which have registered declarations without completing Customs procedures for re-exports. According to the Customs Supervision and Management Department, it is expected to amend Clause 13, Article 1 of Circular 38 on the cancellation of Customs declarations regardless of requests of Customs officers or enterprises to encourage enterprises to self-comply with the Law. Accordingly, Customs declarations on imported goods shall be canceled after 15 days from the date of registration and import goods cannot enter through the import border gate.

Where Customs declarations have been registered but have been not cleared due to the failure of Customs data processing system; declarations on exported goods in the Customs supervision area; Customs declarations on imported goods which have been registered and false declarations related to supplementary information, shall be specified in Section 3 of Appendix I issued together with this Circular.

Regulations on preservation of goods to be tightened

Currently, the delivery of goods for preservation is carried out at the request of enterprises or specialized management agencies. Accordingly, Customs declarants are responsible for preserving goods without specific conditions on storage. In fact, there have been some cases of violations such as: Goods in the process of preservation have been put on sale; goods have been examined but they have been put on sale without accomplishment of Customs procedures; goods are not preserved at the right place and registered places and cannot meet requirements of Customs supervision.

In order to solve the problems as mentioned above, it is expected that the Circular will be revised as follows: Customs officers shall allow enterprises to transport goods to other places for inspection or for preservation. Specifically, enterprises must transport goods to other places for inspection at the request of specialized inspection agencies, the specialized inspection station must be a storehouse with a clear address, separated from the surrounding areas to ensure the preservation of goods.

Consultation on the draft Circular revising Circular 38 VCN- On 10th March 2017, the General Department of Vietnam Customs organized a seminar to consult the ...

For delivery of goods for preservation at the request of Customs declarants, the station or venue to preserve goods must be clarified in the system. Specifically, the preservation station of Customs declarants must be inspected and certified by the General Department of Vietnam Customs to meet the conditions for supervision. In the case where Customs officers confirm that the goods are unlikely to ensure quality, food hygiene or food safety, the goods shall not be approved for preservation. Moreover, the next consignment of enterprises will not be transported to the preservation station if the current consignment is delayed to submit the results of specialized inspections.