Customs sector guarantees to accomplish target on assigned revenue collection

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho spoke at the Conference. Photo: HD

Clearance procedures have been completed for 8.16 million accounts

At the Ministry of Finance's mid-year review conference on state budget and finance work for the first half of 2024 and deployment of tasks for the last six months, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho emphasized the remarkable achievements of the Customs sector in reforming customs procedures, supporting import-export activities, facilitating trade, and implementing anti-revenue loss solutions to strive to fulfill the state revenue collection target for 2024.

From the beginning of the year, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has directed the synchronous and drastic implementation of solutions to facilitate trade, enhance the effectiveness of state management, combat state revenue loss, promote digital transformation and customs modernization. The department has also actively engaged in dialogue with businesses, focusing resources on promptly handling and resolving difficulties and obstacles faced by citizens and businesses to promote import-export business activities.

As a result of these efforts, in the first six months of 2024, the entire Customs sector received nearly 9.5 million new administrative procedure dossiers and 2,233 dossiers carried over from the previous period. Of these, over 8.97 million dossiers were received online; over 8.2 million dossiers were settled on time, and 1.64 million dossiers were settled ahead of schedule.

Besides that, General Department of Vietnam Customs has reviewed and refined the requirements for digital customs procedures and smart customs to meet the demands of comprehensive management from start to finish. On June 5, 2024, General Department of Vietnam Customs submitted a proposal to the Ministry for approval of the draft Decision on Investment Policy for the project "Building an IT system for implementing digital customs to meet procedural requirements in clearance."

Deputy Director General Nguyen Van Tho said that, thanks to its comprehensive and resolute measures, the Customs sector has processed clearance procedures for 8.16 million declarations in the first six months, representing a 14.4% increase compared to the same period last year.

In particular, export declarations reached 4.28 million, up 15.9%, while import declarations totaled 3.88 million, up 12.8%. Customs procedures were handled for 88,700 enterprises, a 6.4% increase compared to the same period last year.

The total value of import-export goods for the six months reached US$ 369.62 billion, an increase of 16% (equivalent to an increase of US$ 51.08 billion) compared to the same period last year. In particular, export value reached US$ 190.73 billion, up 14.9% (equivalent to an increase of US$ 24.74 billion), and import value reached US$ 178.88 billion, up 17.3% (equivalent to an increase of US$ 26.34 billion). Vietnam's trade surplus in goods for the first six months is estimated at US$ 11.85 billion.

In the fight against smuggling and trade fraud, the entire Customs sector has detected, seized, and handled 8,201 cases of customs law violations (an increase of nearly 2% compared to the same period in 2023), with the estimated value of infringing goods reaching VND 16,173 billion. Customs authorities have prosecuted 11 cases and recommended the prosecution of 89 cases to other agencies. The amount of money collected for the state budget is VND 381.4 billion (an increase of 21% compared to 2023).

In the fight against drug trafficking, the entire Customs sector has taken the lead and coordinated with the police and border guards to detect and seize183 cases involving 216 suspects, of which the Customs sector took the lead in 69 cases. A total of over 1 ton of drugs was seized, including: 160 grams of opium, 191.1 kg of marijuana, 62.4 kg of heroin, 1.66 grams of cocaine, 76.1 kg and 900 tablets of ketamine, 571 kg and 6 tablets of synthetic drugs, 379.8 kg, 220 tablets, and 50.5 ml of other types of drugs.

Notably, the General Department of Vietnam Customs successfully organized the 33rd ASEAN Director Generals' Conference with the participation of 100 delegates from 10 ASEAN member customs agencies, the ASEAN Secretariat, and ASEAN partners.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho reported many important results that the Customs sector achieved in the first 6 months of the year.

Proactively facilitating imports and exports

Anticipating a complex and challenging global and regional environment in the remaining six months of 2024, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho outlined the department's key priorities to achieve its goals and objectives.

As a top priority, the General Department of Customs will focus resources on implementing the digital customs IT system to meet clearance procedural requirements immediately upon approval by the Ministry of Finance of an adjustment to the investment policy under the Ministry's Decision No. 899/QĐ-BTC dated April 19, 2024.

At the same time, the Customs sector will continue to proactively engage in dialogue and promptly coordinate with ministries and agencies to resolve difficulties and obstacles, further facilitating import-export production and business activities for enterprises. The goal is to ensure the fulfillment of the assigned revenue collection target of VND 385,000 billion (exceeding the assigned target by VND 10,000 billion).

The General Department of Customs will resolutely direct its Inspection, Post-Clearance Audit, and Anti-Smuggling and Investigation forces to effectively prevent, detect, and investigate cases focusing on enterprises with high-risk indicators and goods subject to high tax rates, price fraud, and HS code fraud… especially, combating drug trafficking.

To effectively carry out its tasks, the General Department of Customs requests the Ministry of Finance to approve the investment policy for the project on building the digital customs IT system to provide the legal basis for the agency to implement project construction and subsequent investment procedures; approve the policy and allocate budget for the continued rental of VNACCS/VCIS software support services until the end of 2026; approve the plan and budget for the application of IT in 2024 for the General Department of Vietnam Customs.