Lang Son Customs: Revenues drop sharply

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Customs officers of the Huu Nghi Customs Branch check imported machines. Photo: H. Nu.

According to notes of a reporter of the Customs Newspaper, at Huu Nghi border gate (which accounted for 85% of the total revenues of the Lang Son Customs Department), imported and exported goods were quite rare. This was in contrast with busy import and export operations a year ago with many container trucks at the border gate day by day.

Speaking to a reporter of the Customs Newspaper, many workers at the border gate said that from the beginning of 2017 to date, they had nothing to do.

The Manager of the Customs Branch of Huu Nghi border gate, Mr. Tran Bang Toan said that many commodity groups with a high value, bringing large revenues to the Lang Son Customs Department dropped sharply. According to the Government Decision 49/2011 / QD-TTg of 1st September 2011 on the roadmap for application of emission standards for manufactured, assembled and imported automobiles and motorcycles (which took effect from 1st January 2017), many enterprises did not dare to import cars due to fears of having difficulties in registration. Therefore, from the beginning of 2017 to date, there were only 221 trucks of all kinds, tractors and specialized vehicles imported. All of these vehicles have not met standards of Euro 4. However, due to narrow space, Customs authorities have temporarily allowed enterprises to transport goods to the warehouses to wait for the results of the registration.

Difficulties in imported automobile parts and automobile components from China led to a reduction of 80% in turnover and a reduction of 75% in Customs revenues compared to the same period in 2016. Specifically, trucks and other vehicles imported in January 2017 and February 2017 reached a turnover of nearly $US 8 million, with a collection of more than 33 billion vnd to the State budget, a decrease of more than 70% compared to the same period in 2016 (in January and February 2016, the turnover of this commodity group reached nearly $US 35 million, with a collection of more than 132 billion vnd to the State budget). Till now, the Customs Branch of Huu Nghi border gate has collected only 335 billion vnd for the State budget (updated on 14th March 2017), Mr. Tran Bang Toan stressed.

According to statistics from the Lang Son Customs Department, import-export revenues of the Customs Branch of Huu Nghi border gate always account for 80-85% of total revenues of the Lang Son Customs Department. Therefore, the current difficulties of the Customs Branch of Huu Nghi border gate are quite similar to the Lang Son Customs Department.

Regarding Customs revenues in the first months of 2017, Mr. Hoang Khanh Hoa, the Director of the Lang Son Customs Department said that Customs revenues from imports and exports through the border gates in Lang Son province decreased in the recent years due to the reduction of tariff lines under free trade agreements and unpredictable changes in China's trade policies. In 2017, the Lang Son Customs Department was assigned to collect 5,500 billion vnd for the State budget. In order to achieve this goal, one of the solutions of the Lang Son Customs Department is to boost the collection of Customs revenues at auxiliary border gates. However, this is not an easy solution because most of exports and imports through these auxiliary border gates are agricultural products with a tariff of 0%. Therefore, in order to increase revenues from exports and imports, it is necessary to continue to build up the border-trading mechanism with China to diversify the exported and imported goods through auxiliary border gates. In addition, the investment in expansion and modernization of auxiliary border gates will also help Vietnamese importers and exporters to be more active and flexible in the case where China changes policies for imports.

In order to solve problems related to Customs revenues from imports and exports, at a meeting with import-export enterprises organized by the People's Committee of Lang Son (on 10th March 2017), Mr. Nguyen Cong Truong, the Vice Chairman of the Steering Committee 389 of Lang Son province said that from the beginning of 2017 to date, automobile imports drastically decreased, affecting the revenues of the Lang Son Customs Department. Therefore, in the coming time, Lang Son will focus on expanding and improving the capacity of the border gates, especially the auxiliary border gates. This solution will not only generate income tax, but it will also create favourable conditions for businesses, especially the export of agricultural products to the Chinese market.

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In addition, Lang Son province will continue to direct functional agencies to strengthen the control and management on imports and exports through border gates and prevent commercial fraud in prices. In particular, Lang Son province also continues to create favourable conditions for enterprises in the field of export and import.