Customs reviews activities of organizations that receive donated cars

Saigon port area 3 customs officers checked imported cars. Photo: T.H

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has been directed to inspect and verify the information on the operation of the gift-receiving organization and carry out verification at the business registration address (for organizations) or the address stated on the application form (for individuals).

If there are abnormal signs, such as: the company does not operate at the registered address; the company has dissolved, gone bankrupt or the representative of the enterprise or the person whose name is on the application denies that the gift or donation is granted, the authority will refuse to grant import license.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs requested the local customs units report and send the application for granting an import license to the General Department in order to verify for the following cases: suspicious cases of documents of donation or presenting or documents proving the relationship between the giver and the receiver show signs of forgery; since Circular 143/2015/TT-BTC took effect, enterprises have regularly imported vehicles in the form of gifts following the prescribed quantity.

When reviewing the dossier and detecting other unusual signs, they must verify and clarify before accepting or denying the license.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs also directed the customs departments of provinces and cities that issue import licenses to review and report documents that have been granted licenses to import cars in the form of gifts that have been granted in the past six years (2016 - 2021) and the first five months of 2022.

In case there are doubts about the business registration certificate (for organizations), about the relatives (for individuals), they shall discuss and coordinate with the domestic tax authority and the business registration authority or the police agency where the application is confirmed (for individuals) to verify the information. If there are unusual signs, such as; the company does not operate at the registered address, the company has been dissolved, bankruptcy, absconding or the representative of the enterprise, the person whose name is on the application denied the import of the vehicle, the authority shall transfer the dossier to the investigating police agency for handling in accordance with the regulations.

In addition, the Customs Departments of provinces and cities carry out import procedures for vehicles and direct border-gate customs branches to review import documents and report them to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Regarding this issue, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai assigned the Ministry of Finance to chair and coordinate with the following ministries; Industry and Trade, Justice, Transport, Foreign Affairs, Public Security and other related agencies, to review the legal framework and summarize and evaluate the implementation results to promptly propose specific, reasonable and feasible measures in accordance with legal regulations to manage imported automobiles or temporarily imported for non-commercial purposes in the event of abolishing of regulations on licensing in Circular No. 143/2015/TT-BTC, ensuring strict compliance with legal regulations and competence, do not allow profiteering, smuggling, and law violations.

The Ministry of Finance has assigned the General Department of Vietnam Customs to urgently complete the review of the legal framework and review and evaluate the implementation results of Circular 143/2015/TT-BTC to promptly propose specific and reasonable measures, in accordance with the provisions of law to manage imported automobiles and temporarily imported automobiles for non-commercial purposes.

Submitting to the Ministry of Finance for comments, the relevant ministries and sectors on the draft dispatch report to the Prime Minister, the draft Circular amending and supplementing in the direction of abolishing the competence to grant import licenses.

Regarding the recent information on the press related to irregularities in the import of donated cars, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai assigned the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Security on the functions, tasks and authority to chair and coordinate with relevant agencies to urgently inspect and verify information, and strictly handled in accordance with law if detecting violations.

The Minister of Finance also directed the General Department of Vietnam Customs to urgently organize the inspection and examination the reported contents and strictly handle in accordance with law provisions if any violations are detected and report the results to the Ministry of Finance before June 2, 2022.