Enterprises pay attention to list of goods subject to exemption from specialized inspection

	Needing quantitative goals to promote management reform, specialized inspection
	Large space for reforming specialized inspection
	Reform of quality inspection and food safety inspection requires determination to change

HCM City Customs Department dialogued with enterprises at the conference on March 31.

Waiting for feedback from ministries and government agencies

Kintetsu World Express Vietnam Co., Ltd., specializing in logistics, asked a question regarding the implementation of the regulation on an exemption from state inspection of quality for imported goods for non-commercial purposes (non-commercial goods) in Decree No. 13/2022/ND-CP, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Letter No. 11827/BTC-TCHQ dated November 14, 2022, requesting ministries to instruct procedures and documents for implementation. When will the relevant ministries and government agencies issue the instruction?

Answering this question, HCM City Customs Department said that in Official Dispatch No. 11827/BTC-TCHQ dated November 14, 2022, of the Ministry of Finance on the implementation of regulations on the exemption from quality inspection for imported goods for non-commercial purposes in the Government Decree No.13/2022/ND-CP, the Ministry of Finance issued an Official Dispatch to proposes relevant ministries and government agencies to instruct regulations on the exemption from quality inspection for imported goods for non-commercial purposes.

The ministry asked ministries and government agencies to guide about cases that are considered imported goods for non-commercial goods subject to exemption from inspection; procedures for application for inspection exemption (if any); documents and forms of documents that must be submitted to the Customs while carrying out procedures (if any). However, the Ministry of Finance has not yet received guidance from specialized management ministries. The Customs will notify the instruction to the business community when the guidance is issued.

Regarding this issue, the company reflected that in the regulations mentioned above, the exemption from quality inspection for imported goods for non-commercial purposes under the decision of the minister of specialized management ministry had caused problems with administrative procedures. Although it is called an exemption from inspection, the company still must apply for a decision on exemption from inspection for customs clearance. Therefore, the company proposed the management agencies revise the regulation to facilitate the company in the import regime.

Regarding the specialized inspection for goods imported from aboard to the Customs control area, a Techtronic Industries Vietnam Manufacturing Co., Ltd. representative said that the company specializes in the production of portable appliances and electrical equipment. Hence, the company is interested in the specialized inspection exemption for goods imported from abroad into the customs area as prescribed in the Law on Foreign Trade Management.

For this matter, the department said that in Article 57 of the Law on Foreign Trade Management 2017, the management measures for imported goods in the customs control area is implemented as follows:

The foreign trade management measures for goods brought from the customs control area to the inland will be applied the same as those brought from abroad into the Vietnamese territory.

Foreign trade management measures are not applied to goods brought from abroad into the customs control area, except for import bans, import suspensions, and quarantine measures.

The management measures for import goods are only applied once in the Customs control area.

Products specified in Clause 2 of this Article must be supervised by the customs authority under the Law on Customs and other relevant laws.

However, the exemption from specialized inspection for goods imported from abroad into the Customs area must also comply with specialized inspection laws.

Specialized inspection time should be shortened

According to enterprises, although procedures for specialized inspection are improved, they are still a bottleneck for import and export goods because it takes a long time. For example, regarding the registration of state quality inspection for goods of group 2, point b, clause 3, article 1 in Decree 74/2018/ND-CP provides that “the inspection agency will confirm that the importer has registered for quality inspection of imported goods on the registration form within one working day”.

The importer must submit the registration certificate certified by the inspection agency to customs for customs clearance permission. Some businesses also asked whether ministries and specialized inspections have performed online registration for quality inspection and returned results online or not.

Currently, the paper inspection registration time takes quite a long, not within one working day as per regulations.

Understanding the difficulties of enterprises on specialized inspection, Mr Dang Thai Phien, Deputy Head of Customs Control and Supervision Division under the HCM City Customs Department, said that the Government has approved the Project on reforming the model of quality inspection, food safety inspection for imported goods, and the Ministry of Finance has drafted the decree and gathered feedback from relevant agencies. When the decree is approved, which will be a great reform on specialized inspection for imported and exported goods.

Currently, regulations on procedures, dossiers and power to allow to bring of goods for preservation while waiting for the result of the specialized inspection are provided in Article 32 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, amended and supplemented in Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC. Therefore, the customs declarant should pay attention to the documents proving the place to bring the goods for preservation, the responsibilities of the customs declarant, and the cases that are not allowed to be brought for preservation.

According to the provisions at Point dd, Clause 2, Article 33 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP amended and supplemented by Decree 59/2018/ND-CP, “If beyond the time limit, the specialized management agencies and organizations have not yet issued conclusion on the specialized inspection, and they must issue documents clearly stating the reason and the date of issuance of the inspection conclusion to send to the customs authority. Therefore, if the result of the specialized inspection is submitted late due to the fault of the specialized inspection agency, the enterprise will request the specialized inspection agency to issue a written certification so that the customs branch has legal grounds for processing.