Customs industry’s revenue increases in the first of 2024

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Mr. Nong Phi Quang speaks at the online conference to review performance in the first half of the year and set out tasks in the second half of the year. Photo: T.B

Positive results in revenue in the first half of the year

Determining the revenue collection as a key task, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) issued Directive No.371 dated January 24 on the drastic implementation of solutions to facilitate trade and improve state management effectiveness and prevent revenue loss in the revenue collection in 2024. The GDVC has set five tasks and specific solutions for each field.

At the online conference to review performance in the first half of the year and set out tasks in the second half of the year, held by the GDVC on July 3, Mr. Nong Phi Quang, Deputy Director of Import-Export Duty Department said that the world and Vietnam economic situation in the first six months of the year showed many positive signs and restored after a difficult time. The number of newly established enterprises increases by 4.5%; the number of firms returning to operation rises 3.3% year-on-year; and foreign investment surges.

Those positive figures have helped the total import-export turnover of goods in the first half of the year increase by 16% year-on-year to US$ 369.6 billion. The total taxable import-export turnover rises 16.5% to US$ 71.8 billion compared with the previous year. The taxable export turnover grows 12.4% to US$ 3.9 billion, and taxable import turnover goes up 16.7% compared with the year ago.

According to Mr. Nong Phi Quang, some commodity groups with high value and high tax rate surges such as imported raw materials, machinery, equipment and spare parts for production, including: coal, chemicals and chemical products, plastics, iron and steel, textile raw materials, electronic components, auto components at U$ 38.4 billion, accounting for 56.6% of the total taxable import, up 18.9% year-on-year; imported crude oil at 6.8 million tons, worth US$4.3 billion, up 16.1% in volume and 19.4% in value.

The growth of turnover has helped total state revenue from imports and exports in the first half of the year increase 8.4% year-on-year to VND200,460 billion, meeting 53.5% of the estimate.

The revenue of 10 major provincial and municipal Customs departments grow 5.97% year-on-year to VND171,425 billion, meeting 51.8% of the estimate, such as Ba Ria - Vung Tau Customs Department up 25.97%; Thanh Hoa Customs Department up 31.62%; Quang Ninh Customs Department up 21.24%...

In the first half of the year, Customs departments have effectively implemented solutions to fulfil tasks under Directive 371/CT-TCHQ; strengthened the prevention of revenue loss through supervision and inspection of customs procedures, post-clearance audit, specialized inspection, and fight against smuggling and trade fraud; focused on combating frauds on goods quantity, value, code, origin, brand; reviewed, classified and collected tax debts. Accordingly, the revenue of the Customs industry in the first six months of the year reaches 349 billion, Quang said.

Striving to achieve the revenue target

Although the Customs industry’s revenue in the first six months of the year has met the plan. However, besides the positive effects, there are many negative effects. Notably, the implementation of Decree 94/2023/ND-CP on reducing VAT on some items has reduced the revenue of about VND 9,000 billion; and the imported CBU cars also dropped.

On June 30, the Government issued Decree 72/2024/ND-CP stipulating the VAT reduction policy under Resolution No. 142/2024/QH15 to continue reducing the VAT rate by 2% from July 1 to December 31, 2024. It is expected that when implementing the policy, it will impact and reduce the revenue by about VND18,000 billion. In addition, it is expected that in the second half of the year, the Customs industry will implement an import tax refund term for auto components under Articles 7a and 7b of Decree 101/2021/ND-CP, which will also decline the total revenue by about VND6,000 billion.

Customs officers of Ninh Binh Customs Department instruct enterprises to implement Customs regulations. Photo: H.N

To achieve the revenue target of VND375,000, Deputy Director Phi Nong Quang recommended all Customs units to develop the revenue estimate in line with the actual situation; control and review debts, especially debts of businesses returning to operation; classify goods to ensure that each item has only one code; and focus on price management and consultation…

Deputy Director Nong Phi Quang emphasized five specific solutions:

Customs units need to implement solutions to facilitate and promptly resolve arising problems related to customs procedures, tax policies, tax management, tax refund regime, tax exemption, creating favorable conditions for businesses participating in import-export activities.

Continue to implement solutions to increase the state revenue under Directive No. 371/CT-TCHQ on the drastic and effective implementation of solutions to facilitate trade and prevent revenue loss in 2024. Municipal and principle Customs Departments need to review and control revenue sources; research, propose and implement solutions to increase revenue.

Promote the implementation of solutions to prevent revenue loss; strengthen the anti-revenue loss through customs inspection, supervision, tax management, post-clearance audit, specialized inspection, internal inspection, and fight against smuggling and trade fraud. Proactively assess impact; promote inspection, review, and handling of tax-exempt and non-taxable subjects; prevent fraud in quantity, category, code, value, tax rate, origin; strictly control tax refunds and overpaid taxes... to prevent revenue loss in the area.

Strictly follow the conclusions of specialized and internal inspections of the GDVC and recommendations of the State Audit to strengthen the anti-revenue loss by managing, classifying, freezing and handling tax debts, cancelling debt late payment and fines; rectify and recover the failure to determine suspected value, leading to failure to check the declared value of goods showing risk of customs value; inspect declaration of goods names and tax codes; review cases of identical/similar goods that have been issued analysis and classification results and instructed by the GDVC to apply uniform codes.

Review and control the tax debt situation; classify debt groups and tax debt status of enterprises; drastically handle, enforce, and collect tax debt, reduce tax arrears, and periodically publicize tax debtors; prevent new tax debts, and prevent tax debts at December 31, 2024 higher than December 31, 2023.