Customs revenue rises thanks to 3 imported groups

	Lao Cai Customs’ revenue increases by 30.5% to over VND200 billion
	Customs revenue in Quarter 1 decreases by 3% year-on-year
	Ta Lung Customs' revenue flourishes

Ninh Binh Customs officials (Ha Nam Ninh Customs Department) guide businesses to implement regulations in the customs field. Photo: H.Nu

Bright spots from 3 imported group

In World Bank’s report updating Vietnam's economic situation (April 2024), the World Bank (WB) stated that, after experiencing a period of deceleration in 2023, the Vietnam’s economy is showing positive recovery signals.

Accordingly, the total import-export turnover in the first four months rose of 15.1% or US$31.35 billion year-on-year to US$238.94 billion. Of which, exports rose15.1% or US$16.26 billion to US$ 123.98 billion and imports rose 15.1% or US$15.09 billion to US$114.96 billion.

In addition, the country's total taxable import-export turnover in the first four months of the year increased 13.9% or US$5.6 billion year-on-year to US$46.02 billion. The taxable exports increased14.8% to US$2.7 billion and the taxable imports increased13.9% to US$43.4 billion.

The growth of production and import-export activities is also reflected in the results of State budget remittances of the Customs sector. As of April 30, the entire sector collected VND124,740 billion to the state budget, equal to 33.3% of the estimate and an increase of 0.3% over the same period in 2023.

According to the representative of the Import-Export Tax Department, the General Department of Customs, the reason for the increase in revenue is the large contribution of three main groups of imported products. Among them, product group with high growth included imported raw materials, machinery, equipment, and spare parts for production including: coal, chemicals and chemical products, plastics, iron and steel, textile and garment raw materials, electronic components, auto components reaching US$24.6 billion, accounting for 56.7% of total taxable import turnover, up 16.9% year-on-year, increasing revenue by VND7,470 billion compared to the same period in 2023.

Followed by the imported crude oil group with 4.4 million tons, worth US$2.7 billion, up 21.2% in volume and 19.2% in value, increasing revenue by VND1,350 billion compared to the same period in 2023. The imported petroleum group also recorded high growth with the figure reaching 2.9 million tons, worth US$2.4 billion, up 16.5% in volume and 13.7% in value, increasing revenue by VND710 billion compared to the same period in 2023.

The growth rate of taxable import-export turnover is higher than the growth rate of revenue, but according to the Import-Export Tax Department, revenue only increased by 0.3% due to the implementation of tax incentive policies under Decree No. 94/2023 /ND-CP of the Government on continued VAT reduction on some items, so in the first four months of the year, the revenue reduced by about VND5,500 billion.

In addition, as of April 30, the budget collection work at 10 local customs departments with large contribution of the Customs reached VND107,476 billion, equal to 32.46% of the assigned estimate, down 0.69% over the same period in 2023. According to the Import-Export Tax Department, although most departments with large revenues had increased revenues in the first four months, some others tended to decrease, such as Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department decreased by 11.89%, Hai Phong Customs Department decreased by 6.79%, Hanoi Customs Department decreased by 2%.

Strengthening to review and grasp revenue sources

The import-export activities are on the recovery path, but it can be seen that pressure from the geopolitical situation in the world, rising exchange rates and logistics costs are causing many difficulties for businesses. Facing with that situation, the General Department of Customs requested local customs departments to strengthen their review and grasp revenue sources; research, propose and implement solutions to increase revenue and prevent state budget loss; proactively evaluate the impact of international integration commitments on state budget revenue.

At the same time, focusing on reviewing and firmly grasping the tax debt situation; classifying debt groups, tax debt status of enterprises, and proposing solutions; drastically handling, enforcing, and collecting tax debt, reducing outstanding tax debt, and periodically publicizing businesses that owe tax; prevent new debts and debts at December 31, 2024 higher than December 31, 2023.

In addition, to improve the effectiveness of state management and prevent revenue loss in implementing state budget collection tasks, the General Department of Customs recommended that units throughout the sector must increase information collection and identify signs of risk, thereby providing inspection, supervision and control measures; post-customs clearance audit, specialized inspection, fight against smuggling and trade fraud; focus on checking quantity, value, code, origin and be determined to prevent revenue loss in their areas.

Along with that, local customs units are reviewing and checking goods names, codes, and tax rates at the customs clearance and post-customs clearance stages to detect and handle cases of incorrect declaration of codes, goods names, or declarations of incomplete good names to apply low tax rates or enjoy special preferential tax rates, focusing on checking items on the list of import-export goods at risk in terms of classification and application of tax rates.

In particular, checking value after customs clearance for items and businesses at risk of misdeclaration on value, to determine the correct customs value and taxable value; taking measures to check and verify the accuracy and truthfulness of customs valuation information presented by businesses to prevent and detect cases of price fraud, and then take remedial measures according to the provisions of law.

In particular, strengthening inspection, reviewing and handling tax-exempt and non-taxable subjects as prescribed in the Law on Export Tax and Import Tax, and in accordance with tax exemption procedures in Decree 134/2016/ND-CP, Decree 18/2021/ND-CP and guiding documents; and strictly controlling tax refunds and handling overpaid taxes.