Long An Customs faces the challenge of reduced revenue

	Long An Customs: Preventing fraud in export processing and production
	Long An Customs put more efforts to collect revenue in difficult times
	Long An Customs: Accompanying and supporting FDI enterprises

My Tho Port Customs Branch conducts an online dialogue with businesses.

As of June 30, 2023, the entire Long An Customs Department has collected more than VND 1,795 billion, equaling 35.9% of the estimate, down 28% compared to the same period in 2022.

Big challenge

In the first 6 months of 2023, although the number of businesses coming to register for customs procedures at Long An Customs Department increased by 2.3% with 1,818 enterprises, the total number of declarations was only 260,677 declarations, down 7.3% over the same period in 2022. Import-export turnover under commercial contracts in the period reached USD 9.49 billion, down 11%, of which export turnover reached USD 5.80 billion, down 8%; import turnover reached USD 3.69 billion, down 15% over the same period in 2022; taxable turnover reached USD 713.7 million, down 25.2% over the same period in 2022. The amount of import and export tax collected and paid to the state budget as of June 30 reached more than VND 1,795 billion, equaling 35.9% compared with the target assigned by the Ministry of Finance, down 28% over the same period in 2022.

Sharing about challenges in state budget collection and payment, Director of Long An Customs Department Nguyen Ngoc Huan said that due to the current situation of economic activities, the import-export of goods of import-export enterprises after the Covid-19 epidemic was still difficult, resonance with the world economic factors showed signs of decline, so the revenue of the unit faced difficulties.

Revenue from import-export goods on the spot reached VND 168.8 billion, down 54% compared to the same period in 2022, equivalent to a decrease of over VND 200 billion. In the area under the management of Long An Customs Department, there are 492 enterprises operating in the field of processing, manufacturing for export and export processing, accounting for 54.2% of the total enterprises located in the area of tax-exempt goods, only pay import and export tax on machinery and spare parts, so the revenue is not high.

“Large projects in the area have not been implemented such as the Coca Cola Company's project, the Nitrogen gas project, and the gas power plants. Up to now, only projects of Thai Tuan Company and Messer gas power project are being implemented, so the revenue source has not shown any positive signs. Although in the first months of 2023, there were goods serving Long An port infrastructure, revenue from machinery and equipment increased slightly compared to the same period last year, electrical cables have a high increase compared to 2022 due to enterprises switching to import for business, but still no increase compared to 2021. However, the above increase is not significant, cannot compensate for the extremely strong decrease of key commodities", the Director of Long An Customs Department shared.

In addition, through information capture, 35 large enterprises with stable income during the year did not have a sudden change in their import plan but also tended to reduce imports. Specifically, in 6 months, the revenue of these enterprises has decreased by an average of 63%, equivalent to a decrease of VND 810 billion in revenue. In which, there are businesses that even reduce their revenue by 96% compared to the same period in 2022.

Revenue from FDI enterprises in the first 6 months of 2023 only reached VND 611.8 billion; accounting for 35% of total budget revenue, down 10% compared to the same period in 2022. Revenue from businesses located in the area accounted for 75% of total revenue, down 33% compared to the previous year, revenue from current businesses accounted for 25%, down more than 10% compared to the average in 2021 and 2022…

Listening to the thoughts and aspirations of businesses

Faced with that situation, in parallel with trade facilitation, Long An Customs Department continues to drastically and synchronously implement solutions to increase budget revenue and strive to complete assigned tasks.

In the past mid-July days, at Duc Hoa Customs Branch and My Tho Port Customs Branch held a dialogue conference in the second quarter to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles for businesses. Especially in the field of processing, manufacturing for export.

Truong Van Linh, Director of My Tho Port Customs Branch, said that in the coming time, the Branch will continue to accompany and work with businesses to remove difficulties and create the most favorable conditions for investment and business environment to attract businesses to invest in the area. Issues and problems during customs clearance as well as the service attitude of customs officers will be received and responded to by the unit through channels such as text, face-to-face, phone, zalo, email, ...

Sharing with the reporter of Customs Magazine, Ms. Le Kim Thoa, representative of Allianceone Co., Ltd. said that the company operates in the field of sportswear apparel. On average, each month, the company imports and exports about 1,200 goods declarations. In the past time, the company has always received the support and companionship of Long An Customs Department in general and Ben Tre Customs Branch in particular. New documents and policies are always promptly updated by the Customs through the Zalo channel. Recently, related to the problem of on-site declaration of import-export goods, the Ben Tre Customs Branch sent a delegation to work directly at the company's headquarters to listen to thoughts and aspirations as well as guiding procedures for opening this type of declaration for the company in the most convenient way.

Along with creating favorable conditions for businesses, the work of preventing revenue loss has also been effectively implemented by the Long An Customs Department. In the first 6 months of 2023, Long An Customs Department detected 90 cases of violations of the law on customs, collecting and paying more than VND 1.9 billion to the state budget; in which, administrative sanctioning 87 cases, with the amount of more than VND 814 million; fixed tax for 3 cases, paid more than VND 1.1 billion to the state budget. The unit also carried out 23 post-audits, including 4/4 compliance audits (completed 100% of the plan) and 19/30 applications of risk management principles (reached 63.3% of the plan). As a result, the unit has increased revenue for the budget by more than VND 7.2 billion from post-audit work.

In a typical case on May 18, 2023 at My Quy Tay border gate, the Working Group of My Quy Tay Border Gate Station coordinated with officials of My Quy Tay Border Gate Customs Branch to perform the task of controlling entry and exit at the border gate. As a result, found Nguyen Thi Thach Thao (born on September 15, 2000, Vietnamese nationality, native of Thai Binh), hidden in a plastic bag of 2.33 grams of Ketamine, carried with her when entering from Cambodia to Vietnam through this border gate.

At the same time, the unit has implemented many solutions to effectively manage and prevent fraud in the type of processing and export production of more than 600 enterprises in 3 provinces assigned to manage customs, including Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre. Through the work of collecting information, in collaboration with the Economic Police Department (Tien Giang Provincial Police), Long An Customs Department detected and handled the consumption behavior in the Vietnamese market of imported raw materials to process goods for foreign traders in contravention of regulations. Violating exhibits include 8,491 kg of garment fabric and 803 kg of cotton of all kinds, with a total value of over VND 1.3 billion; collection and payment to the state budget with a total amount of over VND 184 million; administrative fines of VND 60 million.