Controlling import- export process

	Trade deficit is $US 3.02 billion
	The list of import and export goods subject to the specialized inspections late promulgated
	The first publication on import and export report

The issue of identification number will facilitate the control of goods in and out of the port warehouse. Photo: N. Linh

This is directed by Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs General Vu Ngoc Anh on the issue of the identification number in the Customs declaration, which is being included in the draft Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38 / 2015 / TT-BTC.

On June 12, 2017, the General Department of Vietnam Customs held a survey and exchange meeting with representatives of a number of port operators and shipping companies in Hai Phong on the issue of an identification number for imported and exported goods.

At the meeting, a representative of the Department of Customs IT and Statistics said that with the goal of goods management throughout import - export process, the issue of identification number for imported and exported goods would be based on a number of principles: Information to issue identification number, use of identification number and time of issuing identification number.

About the information to issue identification number for imported goods, the system will automatically grant the identification number according to the information on the goods declaration; the identification number is issued to each house bill (bill of lading number), is guaranteed to be unique and not be duplicated on the whole system.

For imported goods, the system will grant identification number based on the information provided by import-export enterprises (booking number, tax code). The issued identification number is guaranteed to be unique, not be duplicated on the whole system.

The Identification number is used by port, depot, warehouse enterprises to take goods in or out of the warehouses and send information to exchange with the Customs’ system. The identification number is declared on the Customs declaration and used to link stages and procedures. The time of issuing identification number, for imported goods, is the time when the Customs office receives/approves the goods declaration (enclosed with the declared information on House Bill). In the case of incomplete declaration of goods, the shipping companies and the issuer of the bill of lading must declare additional information for the system to issue identification number. For exported goods: Before goods transported to the area subject to Customs supervision, import and export enterprises must register to be granted identification number.

At the meeting, the Customs and businesses also discussed the options for the structure of identification number issued by the Customs. Deputy Director General Vu Ngoc Anh said that the opinions would be synthesized and unified to find the best solution, ensuring the goal of facilitating import-export enterprises and port, depot and warehouse operators as well as matching with management requirements of the Customs. According to the current regulations, there are no regulations stipulated a compulsory criteria on the Customs declaration in order to be able to accurately identify an imported/exported shipment from the planned import/export to the actual import and export, leading to the multiple declarations for the same shipment at many stages in the import-export process (manifest, Customs clearance stage, Customs supervision area stage., etc) without linkage so that the following stage does not know if its preceding stage is right or wrong to implement.

This results in restriction in Customs management (it is difficult to implement Article 41 of the Customs Law and not to check, prevent duplicate declarations and bogus declarations ...) as well as a reduction in the accuracy and transparency in the implementation of Customs procedures for enterprises.

By the end of May 2017: Total import-export turnover reached nearly $US 162.45 billion VCN- According to statistics released by the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the total import and export ...

Therefore, the draft Circular amending and supplementing Circular 38 introduced regulations on identification number for imported and exported goods.