Hai Phong Customs effectively uses equipment in customs management and supervision

	Rolls Royce Cullinan imported to HICT for about one year but is not implemented customs procedures
	Consignee not related to Rolls Royce Cullinan car shipped to Hai Phong Port
	Hai Phong Customs contributes 62.6% of city’s revenue

Hai Phong Customs Department is equipped with 472 cameras by the General Department of Customs; 6 container scanners, 1 baggage and cargo scanner. In the photo: Mobile container scanners are located at Tan Vu port, Hai Phong. Photo: T.Binh

Transformation in quality

According to Deputy Director of Hai Phong Customs Department Tran Manh Hung, the unit is currently managing 171 warehouses, yards, ports and 1 international airport, of which 54 ports belong to Hai Phong seaport system; 3 dry ports, 1 international airport.

With a large volume of goods passing through the port, a long and fragmented monitoring area due to historical factors, a large number of monitoring locations while limited human resources are allocated, the Hai Phong Customs Department has synchronously implemented customs supervision measures and suitable solutions to the specific characteristics of the management area.

Specifically, the unit has always determined that customs supervision has a very important position and role in the state management of customs. Therefore, for many years, the Department has focused resources on people, technology and facilities for this activity. Since then, customs supervision has had a fundamental change in quality, from manual supervision to automatic supervision through information technology systems, inspection and supervision equipment, customs control and supervision capacity in the area under management, has been improved to meet the requirements in the new situation.

In 2022, import and export goods transported by container through Hai Phong seaport system will be 4,344,360 Teu (20 feet-standard container); bulk cargo is more than 18.35 million tons.

In the first 5 months of 2023, import and export goods transported by containers were 1,676,303 Teu; bulk cargo is over 6.2 million tons. (Source: Customs Department Hai Phong)

Modernizing surveillance

According to Hai Phong Customs Department, customs supervision must be synchronously combined with risk management and customs control. In the new situation, supervision is not merely performing simple professional operations to monitor import and export goods and means of entry and exit through the management area, but also requires specialized supervision, deep, remote monitoring. Since the information about goods is available on the E-manifes system, the customs authority must analyze the risk information of goods and vehicles so that when goods and vehicles enter the monitoring area, they will apply key monitoring measures to detect and promptly handle possible violations.

Along with that, the patrol and control of the situation is also deployed at the Customs Control Team, the branches to control and closely supervise the goods brought in, stored, and brought out to the monitoring location as well as during transportation subject to customs supervision. From there, the new customs supervision can be achieved effectively and meet the requirements of state management of customs.

For customs modernization, increasing the application of information technology in customs supervision, in addition to information technology systems developed and applied by the General Department of Customs in the whole industry. Hai Phong Customs Department has actively developed applications applied at the Department to improve the efficiency of customs inspection and supervision. Typically: System to support officials and civil servants working at border-gate customs branches; The system to support officials and civil servants working at customs branches outside the border gate. These systems have been operating effectively, contributing positively to customs supervision activities at these branches.

Another remarkable result is the effective use of customs supervision and inspection equipment such as: container scanners, baggage scanners, electronic positioning seals, surveillance camera systems, drug testing equipment. Currently, Hai Phong Customs Department is equipped with 472 cameras by the General Department of Customs; 6 container scanners (1 fixed scanner located at the centralized import and export inspection location and 5 mobile scanners located at Dinh Vu, Nam Dinh Vu, Tan Vu, VIP Greenport, Lach Huyen ports); 1 baggage and cargo scanner at Cat Bi international airport.

Director of Hai Phong Customs Department Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that after being granted the approval by the General Department of Customs, the unit actively prepared the necessary conditions and coordinated with the port business to arrange basic facilities to put into operation the container scanning systems soon and are arranged at 5 ports with the largest volume of entry and exit ships in the area.

Through the supervision of goods in 2022 and the first months of 2023, Hai Phong Customs Department has detected and handled many cases of violations of customs laws. Typically, in collaboration with the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (PC04, Hai Phong City Police) and functional forces, it successfully dismantled Special Project No. 585K on drugs, seizing 55 cakes of heroin, over 1,200 synthetic drug pills, nearly 4 kg of meth, etc. In particular, the unit presided over the discovery of 3 banned shipments of ivory with a total amount of nearly 8 tons disguised in the horns of farmed cows and peanuts.

In addition, the unit sanctioned 102 administrative violations with major violations such as: false declaration leading to a lack of payable tax amount, import of goods requiring a license without a permit, import goods do not meet specialized inspection conditions, etc.