Enterprises complain about specialized inspections

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Customs officers of Tan Son Nhat International Airport check imported pharmaceutical products. Photo: T.H.

"Obstacles" in specialized inspections

Mad. Le Thi Van, the Director General of Dai Tan Viet Joint Stock Company said that her company had been one of the leading importers and distributors of food ingredients in Vietnam for 20 years. The company has a huge volume of imports, with high quality, but it takes the company a lot of time and money to carry out specialized inspections in Vietnam. "The products of the company are mainly cheese, milk, foie gras, etc. imported from European countries, strictly controlled in the process of farming, distribution and certification. However, when these producted are imported into Vietnam, they must be quarantined before clearance. In fact, Customs clearance is very fast, but it takes the company about 6 to 7 hours to take the goods, due to the waiting time for receipt of goods, samples, shipping papers, etc. The delay in one of these stepss can extend the time and increase costs”, Mad. Van shared.

As a result, the General Director of Dai Tan Viet Joint Stock Company recommended that the authorities should accept the certificates of developed countries. In the case where the authorities detect violations, enterprises shall be strictly punished.

Exchanging with the delegation of the HCM City Customs Department, Mad. Pham Xuan Thu, the Supply Chain Manager of Saigon Paper Joint Stock Company said that the biggest difficulty of enterprises in import and export activities was not Customs procedures but specialized inspections. Accordingly, the company imports raw materials to produce paper products in the domestic market and export with the amount of about 100-120 containers per month. However, imported paper materials have the same HS code with scraps, so they are classified into the Red Channel, subject to physical inspections. Accordingly, before opening Customs declaration, the company must send the dossier to the specialized inspection agency and wait 2-3 days, or even up to 1 week for response of the authorities. "For an imported shipment, the company must pay VAT of 10% to the State budget, but it takes the company up to 20% of revenues for specialized inspections. Then, the profit is only 2-3%", Mad. Thu explained.

Regarding pharmaceutical area, Mad. Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong, the Deputy Director General of Central Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company No. 2 said that the company's export and import volume was very huge. If the company does not reform procedures to reduce the time of certification of specialized inspections, it will negatively affect the time of Customs clearance and costs of enterprises.

The Customs will provide maximum support

Regarding difficulties of enterprises, at the meeting, the leader of the HCM City Customs Department said that as the leading agency in the implementation of the project on reform of specialized inspection procedures, the HCM City Customs Department had many solutions to support enterprises. In particular, it has submitted many proposals to the Government and the National Assembly to solve many inadequacies related to the implementation of specialized inspections at border gates of HCM City.

The leader of the HCM Customs Department suggested that enterprises should continue to have specific reports on each imported items subject to specialized inspections which face obstacles. Accordingly, these obstacles shall be resolved based on the legal documents of Ministries, proposals of enterprises and Customs agencies.

In order to facilitate enterprises in specialized inspections, the HCM City Customs Department has coordinated with specialized inspection agencies to put two specialized inspection stations at Lai port and Tan Son Nhat International Airport with the participation of many relevant forces. In addition, the HCM City Customs Department has also put the portal on specialized inspections into operation with the participation of four parties, including: Customs, specialized inspection agencies, port business enterprises and import-export enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should take advantage of these supports as soon as possible. Agreeing with the recommendations of enterprises in the field of specialized inspections, the leader of the HCM City Customs Department said that the Customs force had been also proposing to accpet mutual results among developed countries; apply risk management for enterprises and apply probability method for each shipment.

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In order to facilitate enterprises in specialized inspections, Mr. Tran Ngoc Anh, the Deputy Manager of the Customs Branch of Tan Son Nhat International Airport said that currently, for consignments to be refrigerated, Customs officers shall conduct physical inspections at the warehouse, so enterprises do not need to transport goods into specialized inspections stations, which saves time and costs for businesses. Thus, quarantine agencies should have similar regulations to create favourable conditions for enterprises. At the warehouses of Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Customs officers and staff of specialized agencies shall carry out sampling at the warehouse without transporting goods to specilized inspection stations as before.