Enterprises should proactively comply with customs laws

	Experience in compliance with customs laws of Japanese businesses
	Actively conduct customs reform and support businesses in enforcing customs laws
	Positive results after 2 years of supporting businesses to improve compliance level with customs laws

Mr. Duong Quoc Phi, Head of Import-Export Division of Vietnam Precision Industrial No. 1 Co., Ltd

Sharing at the talk show, Mr. Duong Quoc Phi, Head of Import-Export Department of Vietnam Precision Industrial No. 1 Co., Ltd. said that before participating in the Pilot Program to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws, his company used to passively comply with customs laws, depended on the guidance of customs officials.

Since participating in the Program, the company have voluntarily and proactively complied with the law in all activities. The Program brings many benefits to the company in terms of time and cost.

After two years of implementation, the Pilot Program has been implemented throughout from the General Department of Customs to the local customs departments and branches.

During the implementation process, Vinh Phuc Customs Branch, Hanoi Customs Department (where enterprises carry out procedures) have arranged specialized staff to regularly pay attention to and contact and support the company, and vice versa, the company can directly report to specialized Customs officers.

The branch will list errors that the company often make on the monthly basis and assess the level of compliance with the law, etc., and notify the company, thereby preventing violations, maintaining the level of compliance, and improving the level of compliance for the company.

“If an enterprise has a higher percentage of Green channel declarations, the enterprise will enjoy good quickly. As for Yellow channel declarations, the enterprise will be take more time for goods release.

Similarly, for the Red channel declaration, in addition to checking the documents, the enterprise must also go through physical inspection of goods. Instead of bringing the goods from the border gate directly to the factory, the enterprise must bring the goods to the inspection location for the Customs agency to inspect, resulting in additional costs, time, and human resources.

Mr. Duong Quoc Phi cited: The production line of an enterprise is only delayed in any stage, causing the whole line to stop operating. Therefore, for the Green channel declaration, the enterprise saves a lot of costs. Thus, when the enterprise complies well with the law, the rate of Green channel declarations increases, the Yellow channel and Red channel declarations decrease, which means that both the enterprise and the Customs agency save time, costs, and resources.

Mr. Duong Quoc Phi shared that the violations that enterprises often commit are mainly related to commodity policies and HS code application because the enterprise does not clearly understand the policies, or is even "careless" in customs declaration. In addition, some items must be declared as chemicals but because businesses do not research carefully, it leads to errors.

To comply with customs laws, businesses themselves must be proactive in complying with the law, thereby bringing benefits to them.

Sharing lessons learned from businesses, Mr. Duong Quoc Phi said that the Customs agency is always receptive and listens to businesses. For any policy that is about to be issued, the Customs agency widely consults the business community and related departments and agencies.

In addition to sharing documents related to customs procedures, Mr. Duong Quoc Phi suggested that the Customs agency continue to be a bridge between businesses and ministries and agencies in the process of amending regulations related to commodity policies. At the same time, organizing annual training courses for businesses related to the application of HS codes.