Low violation rate, need to be more "open" in specialised inspection

Inspecting imported goods at Cat Lai port. Photo: T.H

More than 7,000 declarations of specialised inspection in one month

According to the HCM City Customs Department, in June, the total number of import declarations carrying out through HCM City border gates was 204,200 and the number of declarations with goods subject to specialised inspection was more than 7,000 declarations, accounting for 3.62% of the total number of customs declarations.

The number of customs declarations subject to quarantine made up a majority, with more than 3,000 declarations, accounting for 1.5%; quality inspection of 2,173 declarations, accounting for some 1%; and nearly 1,200 declarations, accounting for nearly 0.6% related to cultural inspection.

In addition, the number of customs declarations subject to specialised management is quite large. In one month, nearly 2,900 customs declarations are checked for import permits and nearly 2,000 declarations are checked for certificates of origin of goods.

According to the HCM City Customs Department, the results are calculated on the average figure among customs branches under the HCM City Customs Department, in which there are customs branches with a very large number of declarations in the period but declarations subject to specialised inspection are very small, such as the Processing Customs Banch, Investment Customs Branch, Linh Trung Export Processing Zone Customs Branch, Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone Customs Branch and HCM Express Customs Branch.

The reason is imported goods are cleared through these units mainly in the form of processing, export production and goods in export processing zones are mostly not subject to specialised inspection, making the rate of declarations subject to specialised inspection of the whole department low, while this rate is high in the border-gate customs branches of seaports and airports.

For example, at Saigon port area 1 customs branch, among 213,000 import declarations in the first six months of the year, there were nearly 8,500 import declarations with goods subject to quarantine, accounting for 3.95 % of total declarations, and nearly 7,600 goods declarations must be checked for quality, accounting for 3.55%.

Goods imported and exported by air have the highest quarantine rate at more than 21% for exports and in excess of 9% for imported goods. According to HCM City Customs Department, more than 4,100 out of 45,800 declarations were subject to quarantine of goods. Export goods have a relatively high rate of specialised inspection, in which nearly 1,300 declarations out of more than 5,800 declarations are subject to quarantine.

The rate of violations in specialised inspection is very low

In the first six months of 2021, HCM City Customs Department completed procedures for nearly 1.2 million import declarations, of which, more than 42,000 declarations were subject to specialised inspection.

Specifically, 16,600 declarations were subjected to quarantine, some 12,500 declarations were quality inspection, nearly 7,000 declarations are food safety inspection and over 6,000 declarations are cultural inspection. In addition, among nearly 1.2 million export declarations, more than 2,000 declarations of goods subject to quarantine, accounting for 0.17%.

At Saigon port area 3 Customs Branch, which specialises in carrying out customs procedures for imported iron and steel products, fertilisers, the proportion of customs declarations subject to specialised inspection is very large. Customs declaration of goods subject to quality inspection accounted for nearly a third of the total number of declarations carried out via the branch.

Among 3,500 declarations carrying out procedures in the first six months of 2021, there are nearly 1,100 goods declarations subject to quality inspection, accounting for more than 30%; nearly 270 declaration are food safety inspection, accounting for in excess of 7.6%.

Although the number of declarations of goods subject to specialised inspection at HCM City’s border gates is very large, the detection rate of violations in this field is too low. In the first six months of 2021, through the results of specialised inspection, HCM City Customs Department made a violation record for 34 cases, with the value of infringing goods nearly VND 10 billion, accounting for 0.0033%.

The biggest violation is in the field of quality inspection, with 27 cases of importing goods that did not meet prescribed quality; one case of violation of food hygiene and safety and six cases of violation on specialised management, such as: license, certificate of origin.

The number of customs declarations of goods subject to quarantine at seaports and airports is very large. However, in the first six months, specialised inspection agencies have not detected any violations on results. This shows that specialised inspection, especially quarantine, needs to be reformed and simplified.