Customs concentrates on communication, dissemination and legal support for enterprises

The Regulation on communication, dissemination and legal support for customs declarants and enterprises in the field of customs has just been promulgated by the General Department of Vietnam Customs with the aim of providing adequate and timely legal information, especially legal documents to customs officers; customs declarants, taxpayers, organizations and individuals with rights and obligations related to import and export activities, goods in transit, entry and exit, transit of means of transport to capture and implement; associate law dissemination with the development of legal documents.

The promulgation of regulations by the Customs sector is to help customs declarants and enterprises grasp the provisions of the customs law, tax law and relevant laws; create favorable conditions to improve self-discipline to comply and fully exercise their rights and obligations.

The Regulation also unifies and standardizes the communication, dissemination and legal support for customs declarants and enterprises in order to gradually improve the quality and effectiveness of this work at units in the customs industry.

The Customs sector will organize the dissemination, communication and supply of information on customs laws, tax laws and related laws to organizations and individuals with rights and obligations related to import and export activities, transit of goods, entry and exit, and transit of means of transport.

In order to achieve good results, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has set a requirement that the communication, legal dissemination and legal support for customs declarants and enterprises must be proactively implemented by units in the sector or as planned, with a scale and system, consistent from the General Department level to the Department level, branches and the equivalent.

Ninh Binh Customs officer (Ha Nam Ninh Customs Department) instructs business to carry out customs procedures. Photo: H.Nụ

In addition, the communication and legal dissemination and legal support for customs declarants and enterprises must meet the requirements of publicity and transparency, and provide full legal provisions on customs, taxes and related laws relating to customs officers, declarants and enterprises to perform, closely follow the key tasks of the Customs sector.

Equipment for communication must be adequate and synchronous at all customs levels to facilitate communication.

At the same time, customs officers performing the communication task must have a firm grasp of customs laws, tax laws, customs procedures, import and export operations, transit of goods, means of transport on entry and exit and other relevant regulations; having good communication skills, presentation skills and a high sense of responsibility for the assigned task.

In particular, when interacting with customs declarants and enterprises, Customs officers must wear uniforms in accordance with regulations, have a polite, respectful attitude and be ready to support customs declarants and businesses.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs also requires units to publicize the hotline number of the General Department on the website of the provincial/municipal Customs Department and post it at the location carrying out customs procedures.

According to the regulations, the whole sector will carry out communication in 11 forms: by document; directly at the Customs office; by phone; at the headquarters of the customs declarant or the enterprise; through organizing conferences, seminars, training sessions and consultations; dialogue; publish on the website of the Customs authority; through the press; distribution of leaflets and publications; investigating and surveying the demand for communication, law dissemination and legal support for customs declarants, enterprises and other forms.

For the dissemination of legal documents on customs, to enhance the responsibilities of the units, the General Department of Vietnam Customs requires, the legal document must be dissmeninated from the stage of consultation to the date of issuance. At the same time, facilitating Customs officers of the whole sector, and customs declarants to easily access the content of the document, the additional draft stipulates the responsibilities of the unit in charge of drafting the legal regulations.

Accordingly, for the draft document that is in the process of being drafted and sent for comments, the units shall compile documents to introduce the new content of the draft document, write analytical articles, and conduct in-depth research to publish on Customs News, the website of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, other newspapers and magazines.

For promulgated legal documents, the customs authority shall draft and publish an outline to introduce new content; conduct online lectures, and introduce new content of documents on the website of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Customs News.

For the promulgated legal documents related to the field of customs, the drafting units introduce new contents related to the customs field, and publish the outline to introduce the new content of the document published on the website of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Customs News.

At the same time, the General Department of Vietnam Customs requires units to strengthen IT application in law dissemination, organize conferences, seminars and training sessions online in case it is impossible to organize face-to-face meetings; online lectures and organise online contests. Livestreaming the programme of business dialogue conferences on the website of the Customs authority or coordinate with local press agencies, television stations, and electronic portals to live broadcast of the conference on local media channels.

Notably, the units need to step up the communication activities during the implementation of Law Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Finance Law Day and Customs Law Day. In particular, following the annual plan to organize Law Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Finance Law Day.

Particularly for Customs Law Day, the units need to take the traditional Customs day (September 10) every year as Customs Law Day to organize key activities on law dissemination.