Customs clearance time across HCM City Seaport plummets

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	Customs clearance time at Quang Ninh Customs Department

Officers of HCM City Customs Department inspect imported goods. Photo: T.H

Diversifying facilitation methods

HCM City Customs Department has developed and implemented plans for Customs reform and modernization to innovate working methods, shorten customs clearance time and facilitate enterprises and people, thereby enhancing customs management.

The department has actively organized conferences to meet and contact with local import and export enterprises to grasp and remove difficulties for enterprises; worked with major enterprises.

The department has proposed and streamlined procedures related to the business in customs area, achieving the goal of implementing adminsitrative reform in the State managment of Customs arear.

In addtion, the department has reviewed Customs policies; listened to feedback from the business community to report to the higher level to complete legal system and administrative procedures. It has actively commented and advised the higher level to achieve the goal of cutting at least 20% of regulations by 2025, minimizing the number of relevant current documents.

HCM City Customs Department has run stable operation of the Single Window units in the whole sector, and built solutions to support business profile information through the portal of HCM City Customs.

The city department has effectively run the portal and promptly update customs regulations and quickly answered problems of residents and the business community. As of June 8, the department has updated 1,133 documents and answered online 27 questions.

The department has performed specialized inspection for exports and imports towards strengthening information exchange between the Customs authorities and the State management agencies through the implementation of the Project on reforming the specialized inspection at border gates; applied IT to streamline and modernize specialized procedures, ensuring transparency.

Reducing customs clearance time

Following Dispatch No. 1173/TCHQ-CCHDH dated March 16 of the General Department of Vietnam Customs on implementing the goal of reducing 10% of customs clearance and release time, HCM City Customs Department has directed its subordinate units on key contents and plans of reform, development and modernization activities in 2023.

For imported goods, the average time from declaration registration to customs clearance and release reduces by 3 hours 38 minutes; for export goods shortens 40 hours and 10 minutes.

The average time from registration of declarations to be permitted to be brought back for storage decreases by more than 11 hours.

According to HCM City Customs Department, the department’s branches have their own specific characteristics and processed customs procedures for many different regimes and goods subject to specialized inspection by ministries and sectors. In addition, the department manages large-scale area including border gates and outside border gates, so the customs clearance time is consistent with the actual reality of the department.

The decrease in the number of declarations and customs clearance and release time in the second quarter falls compared with the first quarter because the city’s economy suffers from challenges due to the negative impact of the world economic and political situation, leading to the plunge in import and export goods.

In the near future, the department will support and instruct enterprises on problems related to customs process to shorten arising time due to additional declaration.

Every week, at the headquarters of the branch office or the premise of the customs declarant, the Customs office discusses and remove difficulties for enterprises.

The department continues to execute and urge enterprises to send dossiers of goods and submit the result of specialized inspection and customs documents and complete Tax obligations to shorten customs clearance time.

In addition, the department works with relevant units to facilitate customs clearance and release.

Continues to implement effective solutions in line with the reality in customs branches to reduce customs clearance time and strives to shorten the customs clearance time by 10% compared with the time in 2022.