HCM City Customs Department prevents smuggling and tax fraud

	HCM City Customs Department refunds and exempts over VND10,000 billion from taxes
	Over 5,000 firms with tax debts at HCM City Customs publicized

Officers of Zone 1st Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch inspect imported goods. Photo: T.H

34 cases are prosecuted

According to HCM City Customs Department, motivated by the implementation of many drastic solutions in the fight against smuggling and trade fraud, the specialized anti-smuggling force as well as the department's customs branches have effectively controlled and prevented violations.

In the first eight months of the year, the Department arrested of over 1,400 violations with an estimated value of infringing goods of about VND3,000 billion. The department prosecuted 1 case; transferred 33 cases to other agencies for prosecution.

Notably, in February, the department transferred the case of H.M Company Limited (District 10, Ho Chi Minh City) to the Police for prosecution, which had registered two customs declarations to import pants, jackets, and dresses, originating from Korea, with a total value of over VND 9.6 billion. Based on the results of the physical inspection and verification, Zone 1st Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch identified that the company falsely declared name, code and tax rate, origin and category of imported goods, leading to the lack of about VND 2.5 billion in tax payable.

According to the department, at seaports, smugglers have falsely declared code, tax rate, quantity, category, quality, weight, and value of imported and exported goods; forged origin and violated regulations on labeling of goods, infringed intellectual property rights, and illegally transshipped goods; imported goods that are used machinery and equipment but declared them as new products to avoid inspection of regulations on importing used machinery and equipment.

In March, the Department transferred the case of illegal import of food supplements to the HCM City Police for investigation. The case was detected by Zone 1st Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch and the Economic Police Department of HCM City Police. Accordingly, P.N Company Limited (Tan Binh District, HCM City) opened two import declarations for various categories of food supplements. Among the 13 categories of goods, the Customs discovered that the label of goods of the category No. 1 of the customs declaration were inconsistent with the announced label on the Product Self-Declaration. The verification result showed that the product name and ingredients on packaging were different from the Product Self-Declaration.

On the air route, suspects have mainly hidden goods inside checked baggage, carry-on baggage to outsmart detection by the enforcement authorities, and falsely declared product name, HS codes, quantity, quality and customs value, and forged dossiers and documents. Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch has led and coordinated with relevant authorities to seize many cases of illegal transportation of used equipment, mainly imported from Singapore and South Korea to Vietnam.

In May, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch discovered a staff of the ground service company for transporting 25 used iPhone and Samsung mobile phones and $100 US suspected dollar bills. The violator received the bills from a flight attendant of Vietnam airline. After inspecting and detecting the violation, the Customs handed over the violator and infringing goods to the Police for investigation.

Earlier, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch discovered and made a record of administrative violations against a logistics company (located in Phu Nhuan District – HCM City) for “false declaration compared to the actual name and quantity of transit goods”. The violating products included 78 used mobile phones.

Combating fraud from specialized regimes

The leader of HCM City Customs Department, to facilitate people and businesses, the Customs has taken modern measures on customs control and risk management. However, some smugglers have taken advantage of the facilitation to customs procedures to implement smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of drugs.

As of August 15, the department arrested 16 cases of illegal transportation of drugs and drug precursors via air routes, and seized more than 27 kg of drugs. Most drugs are disguised and hidden in luggage of exit and entry passengers or in non-commercial parcels imported from foreign countries.

HCM City Customs Department determined that smugglers always abuse policies and unsynchronized control systems to avoid the control of the Customs, so the fight against smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property protection is an important, regular and long-term task.

In the near future, in the last month of the year, the volume of imported and exported goods often tends to crease, HCM City Customs Department will continue to follow direction and guidance documents of all levels on the fight against smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and illegal transportation of drugs across border gates. The department also requests all customs officials to raise awareness, responsibility and honesty in performing task; disseminates businesses and people in the control area about the harmful effects of illegal trading and transportation of goods across the border.

Notably, the department focuses on preventing tax losses. Accordingly, the department grasps and reviews entitles subject to apply self-defense tax, anti-dumping tax, environmental protection tax, and special consumption tax to apply the right entitles. The department strengthens control of duty-free goods, goods entering and exiting non-tariff areas, such as: duty-free shops, bonded warehouses, bonded warehouses, export processing zones, etc., transit goods, and temporarily imported and re-exported goods.

The department will focus on management, inspection and supervision of enterprises registering customs procedures under the regime of processing, production and export processing to promptly detect frauds through regimes, or potential risk of of dissolution, bankruptcy or absconding; implement inspection plans for processing, export production, export processing, bonded warehouses, transit goods, temporarily imported and re-exported goods, goods transported under customs supervision, bringing goods for storage, imported goods sent via express delivery services to promptly detect and prevent violations from these specialized regimes.