In the first six months of the year the whole Customs sector seizes 8,681 cases of violations

The shipment of herbal medicines importing from China "camouflaged" as agricultural products was seized by Customs forces in Tien Sa port (Da Nang) in June 2020.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, activities of smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods and illegal transportation of goods across borders in the first half of 2020 occurred complicatedly in road, sea and air routes. It was not only in the direct sales of traditional channel but also in the online sales channel, due to the development of e-commerce.

Smugglers used sophisticated methods and tricks such as making incorrect declaration of actual goods; failing to declare name of goods, tax code, origin, quantity, quality, value; correct, making fraudulent documents, intentionally consuming goods while waiting for the issuance of inspection certificates of specialised inspection agencies, documents, adjusting manifest; register for inspection at peak hours; "choosing green channel, yellow channel" for implementing cargo clearance.

The violations caused bad impacts upon State revenue, the environment of domestic business and production of goods, affecting political security and social safety.

As a permanent agency of Steering Committee 389 of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Vietnam Customs advised the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with ministries, sectors and competent authorities to strengthen the prevention and combating smuggling, trade fraud, fake goods and illegal transport of goods across borders.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has promulgated and deployed many large plans, like implementing the Customs enforcement plan in 2020; plan on anti-smuggling, counterfeit goods and infringing intellectual property rights in 2020; plan on verifying and investigating production, export processing and transport of cigarettes, cigars, alcohol forging trademarks, origin, barcode and intellectual property infringement.

Deploying the thematic project of improving efficiency of information collection about customs professional activities from abroad. Developing and implementing thematic projects about information collection on Chinese invested enterprises exporting wood products from Vietnam to the US, brick and stone items imported from China and mineral items exported from Vietnam to China.

At the same time, giving direction, guiding and warning local customs authorities to fight and promptly detect acts of smuggling and trade fraud.

Maintain effective implementation of online supervision throughout the Customs sector; connecting the surveillance camera system in the online supervision room to border gates to ensure the command of the General Department and supervising regularly and continuously 24/7; focusing on the importance of IT application and increasing the use of modern management equipment and techniques in customs enforcement operations to proactively prevent and fight against smuggling activities.

In the prevention and combat of drug prevention, the anti-smuggling force of customs has always followed the area, set up a specialised project and solved many cases of transnational drug transportation. In the first months of 2020, Customs forces helped tackle more than 30 cases, seized 3.23 kg of heroin, 17.9 kg of marijuana, 3.1 kg of opium, 94.5 kg and 90,071 tablets of synthetic drug and 5 kg of ketamine.

As a result, the Customs sector (from December 16, 2019 to June 15, 2020) tackled 8,681 cases with the value of infringing goods is estimated in excess of VND 1,685 billion.

In particular, 128 cases of smuggling and illegal transport of goods cross-border, 108 cases of drugs, 12 cases of intellectual property infringement and counterfeit goods and 8,433 cases of administrative violations. State revenue collection exceeded VND 304 billion. Customs authorities prosecuted 18 criminal cases and transferred 56 cases to other agencies for prosecution.

The above results showed the prevention and combat of smuggling, trade fraud, and drug prevention in the first half of 2020 of the Customs sector has achieved many positive changes, the anti-smuggling and investigation force in the sector has attacked many hotspots and lines of drug trafficking, counterfeit goods, smuggled goods, promptly detected and seized many big and complex cases, thus contributing to cleaning up the business environment and creating trust for consumers.