Dong Thap Customs: Proactively guide procedures, reduce customs clearance time for imported and exported goods

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Officials of Dinh Ba Customs Sub-department (Dong Thap Customs Department) inspect imported palm sugar. Photo: T.H

Timely guidance on procedures

Recently, guiding procedures for importing a shipment of multi-purpose wet kitchen towels (toilet paper) for Ha Hien Consumer Goods Co., Ltd., Dong Thap Customs Department clearly stated, regarding commodity policies, the case of importing unscented wet towels, based on Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 of the Government, wet towels (unscented) are not on the list of goods banned from import or subject to conditional import, the company carries out import customs procedures like other normal goods. In case of importing scented wet towels (impregnated with fragrance or cosmetics), businesses must declare cosmetics when importing into Vietnam according to the instructions in Circular No. 06/2011/TT-BYT dated September 25, 2011 of the Ministry of Health regulating cosmetic management; Circular No. 32/2019/TT-BYT dated December 16, 2019 of the Ministry of Health on amending and supplementing Clause 4, Article 4 Appendix 01-MP Circular No. 06/2011/TT-BYT.

Many problems related to importing agricultural machinery were also promptly guided by the Dong Thap Customs Department.

In early March 2024, An Yen Phat Agricultural Trading Service Company Limited requested guidance on procedures for importing agricultural machinery and equipment and was given specific instructions by the Dong Thap Customs Department.

Accordingly, for new agricultural machinery and equipment, enterprises shall comply with the provisions of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Foreign trade management; Section 9, Appendix issued together with Circular No. 16/2021/TT-BNNPTNT dated December 20, 2021 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Official Dispatch No. 986/KTHT-CD dated September 21, 2023 of Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development; Official Dispatch No. 1547/GSQL-GQ1 dated October 2, 2023 of the Department of Customs Supervision and Management on quality inspection of machinery and equipment used in agriculture, specifically "Importers must submit a registration form Check according to the form prescribed in Decree No. 74/2018/ND-CP to the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development or the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces and municipal cities to confirm customs procedures".

For imported used machinery and equipment, comply with Article 4, Article 5, Article 6, Article 7, Article 8 of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg dated April 19, 2019 of the Government Regulating the import of used machinery, equipment, and production lines; Clause 1, Clause 2, Article 1, Decision No. 28/2022/QD-TTg dated December 20, 2022 of the Prime Minister amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg.

Regarding customs procedures, businesses are advised to follow Article 16 and Article 18 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance; Clause 5, Clause 7, Article 1 of Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC. For used agricultural machinery, in addition to import documents according to the provisions of the Customs Law, enterprises must supplement documents as prescribed in Article 8 of Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg dated April 19, 2019 of the Prime Minister regulating the import of used machinery, equipment, and production lines.

Reduce customs clearance time for goods

To achieve the goal of reducing the rate of goods subject to physical inspection and reducing customs clearance time, in recent times, Dong Thap Customs Department has increased customs declaration clearance activities (Yellow channel, Red) by urging civil servants to clear customs and release goods in accordance with customs procedures, avoiding empty time. In case any problems arise, the civil servant will check the details of the dossier, physically inspect the goods and immediately report to the leader on duty for handling and customs clearance according to regulations.

At the Department and its affiliated units, civil servants are assigned and arranged to implement the Single Window Mechanism, facilitating the handling of administrative procedures related to import-export activities and means of transport on entry and exit, transit, administrative procedures are received directly by civil servants or through online public services, the results are paid according to regulations, there are no cases of overdue payments. The Department's website has a question and answer section, this is a channel for people and businesses to exchange information, reflect difficulties and problems in the process of customs procedures, as well as the attitudes and working styles of civil servants and customs-related issues.

With the above methods, the support and reform of administrative procedures of Dong Thap Customs Department is shown through the results of measuring time to release goods through border gates. According to Dong Thap Customs Department, through measuring customs clearance and goods release time in the fourth quarter of 2023, the results show that the average customs clearance and goods release time for import declarations is greatly reduced compared to the third quarter of 2023, reduced by more than 6 hours; Other times in the customs procedure process such as customs clearance and goods release time have been significantly shortened by the Customs authorities.

Notably, some targets were achieved, such as: reducing the inspection rate of Red Channel import and export goods by 50%; 20% reduction in the number of shipments that must be sampled for analysis and classification; targets on reducing documents in customs dossiers, basically converting to documents in electronic form. Specifically, 100% of documents certifying the origin of goods are submitted electronically; Strengthen price consultation in the indirect form for class 1 to 4 enterprises.

In the coming time, Dong Thap Customs Department will continue to implement more drastic solutions to reduce customs clearance time and goods releasing time, create favorable conditions for businesses in import-export activities, reduce costs, and increase productivity, enhance competitiveness, increase income for workers, and contribute to local social security.