Develop the process of customs procedures following the orientation of Digital Customs

Professional activities of customs officers of Hai Phong Customs Department. Photo: N.Linh

Actively improve professional operations

To solve problems under the scheme of Digital Customs, Smart Customs, the Customs Control and Supervision Department has chaired the development of professional problems toward Digital Customs and Smart Customs.

Accordingly, this unit chairs to direct and implement a number of tasks such as coordinating to review and complete professional problems; mapping the business process in the direction of smart customs; describing the steps of implementation; developing requirements and reporting on approval of customs operations.

Up to now, the Customs Control and Supervision Department together with other units have reported to the leaders of the General Department, and reported to the Ministry of Finance on 90 customs problems with a total of over 15,000 functions (including new and the functions of existing IT systems).

Currently, the unit is directing together with the groups to continue to review and perfect the details of the problems and functions of the new information technology (IT) system and report to the leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs on the plan of implementation, review and completion of the requirements on building an IT system to implement digital customs in the near future.

In addition, on the basis of current implementation, the unit has evaluated the superior performance of the VNACCS/VCIS system to research and include in the problem of re-engineering the IT system of Customs sector; direct the review and amendment of legal documents of the Customs sector in the spirit of implementing Digital Customs to ensure the legal basis and implementation process and procedures in order to run Digital Customs in the future.

At present, the unit is reviewing the need for equipment for customs inspection and supervision to report on the planning of a synchronous system, connecting to the Customs electronic data processing system to submit to the leaders of the General Department; at the same time, conducting research and application of modern customs management methods such as chain-based and identifier-based customs management on the basis of digital customs for processing and export production.

Concretize the goals of Digital Customs in formulating mechanisms and policies

In parallel, with the development of professional problems, the completion of legal documents of the Customs sector also closely follows the spirit of implementing Digital Customs. One of those documents is the Decree on amending and supplementing Decree 08/2015/ND-CP; Decree 59/2018/ND-CP which is actively completed by the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Vietnam Customs) and submitted to the Government for promulgation.

The Decree is amended and supplemented with regulations to create a legal basis for the building of a Smart Customs and Digital Customs model in association with the implementation of the scheme on redesigning the overall IT system of the Customs sector and Customs development strategy to 2030 on the basis of centralized management, application of new technological achievements, in line with international standards, meeting the requirements of smart governance, trade facilitation, and ability to integrate, connect, share and exchange customs data with related parties.

The provisions of the Decree have ensured the enhancement of IT application and modernization of customs operations; promoting the application of the achievements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (such as: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data (Big Data), blockchain management (Blockchain), Internet of Things (IoT)) in customs management, moving towards building a Smart Customs model.

The spirit of digital transformation is clearly reflected in the provisions of the draft Decree. For example, in terms of customs procedures, the draft Decree amending Point b, Clause 4, Article 25, stipulates the creation and sending of customs dossiers through the system appropriate with the electronic customs model (documents are in the form of electronic or digitized data).

Accordingly, when making customs declarations, the customs declarant submits customs declaration and documents under the customs dossier in the form of electronic data or digitized data to the customs authority through the customs data processing system. In case the documents of customs dossier are already on the National Single Window Portal, the customs declarant is not required to submit them to the customs office. In case the original documents in the customs dossier must be submitted, the customs declarant must submit it directly or send it by post to the customs office.

Or regulations on customs procedures for ships on entry, transit, port transshipment, draft Decree supplements regulations on registration of general information about ships on entry and exit with the aim of creating a legal basis. When implementing the Digital Customs System, it will be designed in the direction of supporting checking information about means of transport when the declarant makes customs declaration on the profile of the incoming and outgoing ships.

Thereby preventing the duplication and false declaration of information with each entry and exit that is currently happening; it also ensures support in risk assessment and reports on the operation of each entry and exit ship; supports customs declarants (shipping lines/shipping agents/logistics companies) to reduce the number of criteria that must be entered in the declarations because when declaring, they only need to enter the IMO number so that the system can export the general data that is previously stored.

At the same time, creating an electronic database of ships engaging in entry and exit activities across the country through the system in order to support Customs authorities at any time to track/statistical schedules and operation history of each means of transport on entry and exit.

In order to deploy the Smart Customs management model, the draft Decree supplementing regulations on customs procedures for all types of vehicles on entry and exit by road, rail, and inland waterways is implemented on customs electronic data processing system (online public service system).

In case the customs electronic data processing system has problems, the customs declarant and the customs authority shall carry out paper procedures. In the immediate future, when the Decree takes effect, these procedures will be carried out on the Online Public Service System; in the long term, the Customs authority will develop a professional problem to design on the National Single Window Portal in order to ensure the application of modern information technologies into customs management.