Dinh Tien Dung Minister: The root of smuggling has not been eradicated

	Focus on reducing smuggling through Noi Bai airport
	Minister Dinh Tien Dung worked with HCM City People's Committee on budget collection, anti-smuggling
	When smuggling cigarettes carry "hot goods"

The illegal medical smuggling equipment was arrested by HCM City Customs because a fake company named in declaration. Photo: T.H

The top of smuggling is newly cut

At the meeting with People's Committee of HCM City on budget collection, anti-smuggling and trade frauds on December 19, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, Standing Deputy Chairman of the Central Steering Committee 389, paid attention to anti-smuggling work and counterfeit goods in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Deputy Director of HCM City Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Phuong Dong, in 2018, the 389 Steering Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has discovered a number of smuggling and trade fraud methods and tricks, such as: taking advantage of risk management mechanism, subjects chose customs declaration flow; taking advantage of the transit policy to smuggle...

In the first 11 months of 2018, 24,589 violation cases (of which: 2,346 cases of illegal trade in illegal goods, smuggled goods, 21,373 trade frauds, 870 cases of production and trading of fake goods); criminal proceedings for 66 cases / 65 subjects; State budget revenue is over VND 4,785 billion.

According to Deputy Director of Public Security Phan Anh Minh, the Penal Code 2017 came into force, and in 2018 there were many reports to the police, with all cases reducing the number of imported goods, wrongly declaring the code, and all had to be transferred to the police. There are cases in which both sides did not know they had constituted a crime, but the customs office must also transfer and wait for the police to issue a decision not to prosecute, then the customs office will be able to handle administrative and material evidences. Such a process causes a backlog of cases, affecting the sale of material evidences and collection of money to the state budget.

Mr. Phan Anh Minh said that with many smuggling cases and tax evasions, objects dodge, walk away, owners leave property and then run away, and when the objects are arrested, the property has deteriorated or is damaged.

Currently, regulations are so favorable and convenient for enterprises to set up easily, just register online, enterprises only have to name their company, and by using false records can set up businesses. There are many smuggling cases being investigated in which it is found that business owners are not real, false records, so the real owners as well as the leader are not arrested.

Not only that, the coordination of crime prevention relating to finance and banking is also very difficult. Investigation of fraudulent tax, price, transfer of price, an investigtion agency has difficulty in verifying the account, while the banks are regulated for confidentiality of customer accounts, thereby requiring a decision of prosecution and investigation to willingly provide information. This is very inadequate.

Coordinate to handle the root

At the meeting, General Director of Customs, Nguyen Van Can said that the situation of smuggling in the area has many other developments and very sophisticated tricks. For example, drugs are not transported individually, but transported by containers, by mail, parcels; Smuggled objects using fake names and addresses to receive goods. When the customs office detects, the object refuses to receive the goods. Particularly, when the customs office strengthens its checks in Ho Chi Minh City, the objects turn to another type of trick, transit to other countries, and then find ways to bring back to HCM City.

Smuggled cigarettes to Ho Chi Minh City are also very sophisticated. There are also cigarette factories in foreign countries, mainly transporting and smuggling to Vietnam, which causes the state budget to lose about 9,000 billion VND annually.

In order to deal with cases of smuggling and trade frauds, General Director Nguyen Van Can said that for enterprises that do not obey procedure under the regulations, the customs office must not accept an additional declaration, need to handle immediately. For cases of trade frauds, if detecting that there are no signs of deliberate acts, the customs offices will impose sanctions and regular collection of tax arrears. If there are signs of suspicion of intentional acts, it is necessary to verify and coordinate with the police offices to investigate and prosecute such cases.

"Currently, customs declaration information is updated on the National Portal, the authorities can access the declaration of enterprises. If when checked online and there is no internet access, the customs office has provided the telephone number for a message, the authorities will immediately check the information in the customs declaration,"- General Director Nguyen Van Can said.

Assessing the situation of smuggling and trade fraud, Minister Dinh Tien Dung said that Ho Chi Minh City is the focus of smuggling and trade fraud. During the year, well-coordinated sectors and forces have dealt with many cases, but the situation is still complex.

Smuggling medicine is increasing VCN- On 19 December 2018, the interagency inspection delegation on the state management in pharmaceuticals, food safety ...

"The forces have had good coordination, but it has not been really effective. Many smuggling cases have only ‘cut the tops’, not arrested the real owners, so the root of smuggling is not eradicated. Currently, at the end of the year, in addition to blocking smuggled goods, the prevention of counterfeiting and counterfeit goods is very important. Public Security, Market Management, Border Protection, Customs, and Tax - each sector has its own functions and tasks, but it is necessary to coordinate with one another in order to effectively prevent smuggling and trade fraud.“ Chief Dinh Tien Dung emphasized.