Ho Chi Minh City Customs: Timely detection of many cases of false declaration in import documents

Customs officers take statements from subjects illegally transporting diamonds. Photo: L.T

False declaration, fine of billions VND

In early November 2024, Saigon Port Customs Sub-department, Region 1 (Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department) issued an administrative fine on tax violations against H.T. Company (Ho Chi Minh City) with the amount of over VND 860 million for importing goods with incorrect customs declarations.

According to the case file, this enterprise opened 26 customs declarations to import goods such as advertising screens, metal frames, and aluminum hinges, with a total value of over VND 37 billion.

However, on the customs declaration, the enterprise declared incorrectly the commodity codes and tax rates of the imported goods, leading to a shortage of payable tax.

This behavior was discovered by the Customs authority when inspecting and examining the cleared goods. With the above false declaration, Saigon Port Customs Sub-department, Region 1 concluded that the enterprise declared incorrectly, leading to a total shortage of payable tax of more than VND 4 billion.

In addition to collecting the full amount of under-declared tax, on November 2, 2024, Saigon Port Customs Sub-department, Region 1, issued a decision to impose an administrative penalty on H.T. Company, an amount equal to 20% of the under-declared tax. In total, H.T. Company was fined and collected over VND 5 billion.

In addition to the above case, at the end of June 2024, Saigon Port Customs Sub-department, Region 1 also imposed an administrative penalty on N.D. Company (Binh Chanh District - Ho Chi Minh City) of over VND 123 million.

According to the case file, this company registered 3 customs declarations for importing various types of steel, which were classified as Yellow by the automatic customs clearance system of the Customs agency.

However, after that, the above declarations were self-declared and supplemented by N.D. Company regarding quantity, name of goods, type, and customs value.

During the detailed examination of the above declarations, the Customs officers discovered that N.D. Company had committed a violation of false declaration of quantity, name of goods, type, and customs value of imported goods, leading to a shortage of payable tax. The taxpayers discovered this themselves and supplemented the tax records according to the provisions of the Customs Law, but after the Customs authority announced the direct inspection of the customs records for the goods undergoing customs procedures.

The total value of the violating goods of the above 3 declarations is more than 4 billion VND, the total amount of tax under-declared (self-discovered and amended and supplemented by the enterprise) is over 1.2 billion VND. With the violation, the enterprise must pay additional tax and fines of over 1.3 billion VND.

Being similar to the above behavior, previously, S.T.P Trading and Service Company Limited (Binh Duong province) imported a shipment of alloy steel, originating from China, worth over 7.2 billion VND, but falsely declared the commodity code, tax rate, and type, leading to a shortage of payable tax. This behavior was discovered by the Customs authority during the customs clearance process.

Saigon Port Customs Sub-department, Region 1, has collected additional taxes and fined the enterprise a total of nearly 1.1 billion VND.

Taking advantage of the ease to commit fraud

According to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, the unit manages procedures for a very large number of import-export enterprises, about over 60,000 enterprises.

In addition to facilitating trade, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has proactively inspected, controlled key goods and has detected, prevented many cases of violations of customs laws.

In the first 10 months of 2024, the unit presided over, coordinated, detected and arrested 1,942 cases of violations with an estimated value of infringing goods of more than VND 4,347 billion. Of which, 1,939 cases were administratively handled, with a total fine and payment to the state budget of nearly VND 39 billion; 1 case was prosecuted and 45 cases were transferred to other agencies for prosecution.

The main methods and tricks of violation are: false declaration of codes, tax rates, quantities, types, quality, weight, and value of imported and exported goods; falsification of origin, violation of regulations on labeling of goods, infringement of intellectual property, illegal transportation, etc.

There are cases where goods are used machinery and equipment but are declared as new to avoid inspection of regulations on importing used machinery and equipment.

For exported goods, enterprises falsely declare the names of the actual exported goods (the actual exported goods are not processed or manufactured products as declared) to smuggle goods of unknown origin abroad and legalize the liquidation of imported raw materials to evade taxes and bring imported raw materials into domestic consumption.

Notably, to facilitate entry, the Customs Department has implemented an inspection-free lane (Green lane) for passengers who do not have imported goods, but some subjects have taken advantage of this openness to illegally transport goods and evade taxes.

At the end of October 2024, the Customs Sub-department of Tan Son Nhat International Airport coordinated with the Economic Police Department (PC03) - Ho Chi Minh City Police to discover and arrest two Indian passengers entering the country who did not declare 1,078 diamonds to customs.

Both cases have been prosecuted by the police and expanded the investigation according to regulations.

Recently, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department inspected the carry-on luggage of a Korean tourist exiting the country, discovered and seized 365.4 grams of ketamine; or discovered in an imported parcel from Canada declared as a personal gift containing a total of 1 kg of marijuana.

According to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, the cases of customs law violations detected by the unit and transferred to the police for criminal prosecution mainly involve the import of prohibited goods, smuggled goods, drugs, etc.