Customs management for e-commerce

	Online sale: looking at real product photos but accidentally buying fake goods
	Alarm violation in e-commerce
	E-commerce tax management: 100% must implement e-tax declaration and e-payment

Illustrative photo

Expanding e-commerce - the inevitable trend

According to a survey by the General Department of Customs and statistic published by Statista – a German market research firm, in 2018, Vietnam's e-commerce revenue reached US$2,269 million and ranked in the top six e-commerce platforms. According to Vietnam E-Business Index 2018 Report by the Vietnam E-commerce Association, the average annual growth rate of Vietnam is from 25 percent to 30 percent. If Vietnam maintains this growth, Vietnam's e-commerce market by 2025 will be ranked third in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and Thailand.

Viet Nam currently has e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Tiki, Shopee and Adayroi. The growth rate of e-commerce sites is high, which shows that Vietnamese consumers are familiar with purchasing goods on e-commerce platforms. In addition, in big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, consumers also are interested in buying goods from e-commerce platforms such as Ebay and Amazon.

According to the General Department of Customs, e-commerce transactions for exported and imported goods in Vietnam are conducted through websites and e-commerce trading platforms. Tangible goods are shipped from abroad to Vietnam and vice versa, while the payment may be carried out by intermediary units or in cash.

The operation of e-commerce for exported and imported goods is now usually done in two forms – buyers in Vietnam make orders, then the ordered goods will be shipped to Vietnam (imported goods), buyers in overseas make orders to Vietnam then the ordered goods will be shipped from overseas to Vietnam (exported goods).

E-commerce businesses (usually as e-commerce platform owners) have imported goods to Vietnam, when customers make orders, these businesses shall deliver goods to the customers in Vietnam.

Separate management mechanism

Vietnam now has no specific regulations on state management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods. This is similar to ordinary goods. At that time, these imported and exported goods shall be subject to specialized inspections, customs procedures and tax policies similar to ordinary imported and exported goods.

The management of state agencies for e-commerce goods shall be implemented from the time the declarant declares to the state management agencies (specialized management agency or Customs authorities). Therefore, the management can only be done from the time the declarant declares it. Therefore, information related to goods is sent to the management agencies later than the time the e-commerce transaction is established and the management agencies do not know the actual time of e-commerce transactions.

In some countries, depending on their own management objectives, each country has different measures to manage e-commerce for imported and exported goods. For Japan, it is indistinguishable from the management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods, while South Korea focuses on the rapid clearance for goods sent via courier services because they assess that e-commerce goods are mostly personal products with small value. In addition, Indonesia and China give specific incentives for e-commerce goods on tax policies and customs procedures. For China, there are more preferential policies on specialized inspection.

In Vietnam, to ensure the management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) is collecting comments from ministries, ministerial-level agencies and provincial and municipal People's Committees on the draft scheme on management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods.

Accordingly, to ensure the management of parties in e-commerce transactions and facilitate and promote development of commercial activities in Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs) is proposing specific solutions.

For the group of solutions related to goods clearance, two tasks are required. Firstly, it is required to formulate customs procedures and specialized inspection procedures to control goods but reduce the time and procedures for customs declarants. To carry out this task, a decree on cross-border e-commerce management, that stipulates customs procedures, commodity policies and tax policies.

Secondly, building a system to manage e-commerce activities. Because transactions are made through technology software and technology platforms. Thus, the management agencies also need to have a system suitable to the development of the fourth industrial revolution.

With a group of solutions related to specialized inspection, currently e-commerce goods are not only sent to Vietnam via courier and post, but also via transportation companies by sea, railway and road. Therefore, there should be regulations on exemption from specialized inspection and licensing of goods subject to specialized inspection in each specific case. Besides, there should be regulations on reducing specialized inspection time.

For the group of solutions related to tax policies, currently there is no system to receive, store and process data related to e-commerce transactions, so customers purchase goods with discount price on the e-commerce platforms and websites, but when the goods arrive in Vietnam, the customs offices have no basis to calculate the tax on the discount price but on the original price, thus it does not reflect the transaction value of the goods.

Therefore, according to the Ministry of Finance, there should be specific regulations on accepting the value of transactions via e-commerce as the actual value for tax calculation provided that information about e-commerce transactions is updated to the e-commerce transaction management system.

E-commerce tax management: Review from individuals to organizations providing services VCN – The taxation sector has been taking specific measures to manage e-commerce tax and changing sanctions ...

Currently, the draft scheme on management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods is still being widely commented on. In the future, the General Department of Customs will continue to organize seminars and workshops to collect opinions of the business community, ministries, agencies and experts on the draft scheme on management of e-commerce for imported and exported goods.; draft decision approving the scheme; draft proposal to the Prime Minister on approving the scheme and draft decree on the management of cross-border e-commerce in the customs field. Besides, on September 19, Customs Newspaper also held a seminar: "Customs management for e-commerce activities".