Customs – business partnership at Ha Tinh: essence and being intensive

Vung Ang Customs official instructed enterprises to implement customs procedures. Photo: H.Nụ

Problem solving

Administrative reform and modernisation of Ha Tinh Customs have had many positive changes, derived from the identification of the central and breakthrough role of administrative reform in leadership, administration and management at all levels.

According to Dinh Van Hoa, Deputy Director of Ha Tinh Customs Department, the unit had always focused on developing the Customs-business partnership. Every year, the unit issues and urges the units and related parties to coordinate and organise consultation conferences about the Customs-business partnership, integrating with the contents to answer problems. From organising and participating in working sessions held by the Provincial People's Committee, the Economic Zone Authority of Ha Tinh province with key enterprises in the area, FDI firms which aimed to grasp and guide procedures related to the Customs sector has brought many positive effects in customs management.

One of the goals associated with the solutions that have been drastically implemented by Ha Tinh Customs is to attract enterprises and remove problems and difficulties for them. Regularly organise talks, exchange, answer questions and solve the problems of businesses. At the same time, the unit strengthened the Advisory Group on Customs-Business, assigned members of the team to answer questions about customs procedures and processes on the website of the department and the province as well as answered directly via phone and email to the business community when there is a request. At the same time, implementing communication well, timely answering the arising problems of businesses and supporting information for businesses on the information technology platform.

In the early days of 2021, when the Laos Government loosened the wood export policy (in 2016, the Lao Government issued Directive 15/PM to prohibit the export of wood), Ha Tinh Customs organised dialogues, worked to solve problems, guided businesses to supplement documents, procedures for traceability of goods and guided on implementing customs declaration in accordance with the Decree 102/2020/ND-CP of the Government, ensuring quick cargo clearance for businesses.

Tran Phat Dat, Chairman of the Business Association of Huong Khe District (Ha Tinh), said that with positivity, problem solving from Ha Tinh Customs together with the coordination of the business community, from the beginning of the year, in Huong Khe district, there were about 10 enterprises participating in wood imports, contributing to restarting production. This not only boosted the local economy, but also increased State revenues.

Statistics from Ha Tinh Customs Department showed that, as of March 15, the whole department has received and completed procedures for 3,195 sets of declarations, up by 52.7% over the same period in 2020 with a total turnover of $904.6 million, increasing by 55.75% over the same period. By the end of March 21, Ha Tinh Customs has collected VND 1,518.1 billion and paid into State budget, reaching 29.31% of current appropriation and up by 66.64% over the same period in 2020.

Building trust with business

With such efforts and accompanying with enterprises to overcome difficulties, in recent years, Ha Tinh Customs has always been at the top of the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) among the total number of central authorities in Ha Tinh. For many consecutive years, the department is considered as one of the leading units in the use of information technology, modernisation reform, maximum facilitation for import and export activities.

According to Dinh Van Hoa, to complete the assigned political tasks in 2021 as well as in 2021-2025, Ha Tinh Customs would continue to build and develop in-depth and substance the Customs-business partnership. Ha Tinh Customs would direct the branches to grasp the problems and difficulties of enterprises through information exchanges and conferences on specialised topics.

Ha Tinh Customs will deploy to support maximally import and export activities of firms, monitor and grasp the situation of enterprises' activities, facilitate to import and export activities in the area, and maintain cargo clearance 24/7 at border gates and seaports, to support enterprises to have enough raw materials for production, business operation and import-export. At the same time, Ha Tinh Customs encourages firms to send dossiers through online public service system, promote communication via phone, email with enterprises to support and remove difficulties and problems in the implementation of customs procedures to implement quickly and effectively. Besides that, Ha Tinh Customs Department has implemented solutions to reform administrative procedures, modernise professional processes to reduce the clearance time for goods from border gates, to help enterprises overcome difficulties in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hoa said.

At the same time, Customs authorities continues to well implement tax policies and laws; strengthen guidance professional procedures on tax for customs branches and firms in the area, ensure accurate collection and timely payment to the State budget, avoid incurring bad debts, uncollectible accounts. The unit will strengthen the information collected from large enterprises, large investment projects to grasp information on import-export activities, import-export turnover as a basis for assessing the ability to collect and formulate annual estimates of State revenue close to reality.

Hoa said that to fulfill the assigned annual tasks, accompanying with businesses, create trust and attract many businesses to do procedures across the area, increasing revenue for the State budget was still the optimal solution to bring the highest efficiency Ha Tinh Customs has been implementing.