Ninh Binh Customs: Accompanying businesses to overcome difficulties

	Ninh Binh among 23 best places to travel in 2023: Forbes
	Customs effectively implements tax exemption, reduction and refund policies to support businesses
	Ha Nam Ninh Customs holds dialogue with Ninh Binh based-businesses

Customs officers of Ninh Binh Customs Branch meet enterprises to grasp their situation and handle arising problems. Photo: H.Nu

Four reasons for the decrease in revenue

According to Ninh Binh Customs Branch, in the first five months of the year, the unit processed 28,340 sets of declarations from 204 enterprises, down 0.5% year-on-year, with a total import-export turnover of US$1,843 million, down 19.6% year-on-year.

The major import-export products are rattan and sedge products; textiles; footwear; canned pineapple; processed minerals; electronic components, machinery and equipment imported to create fixed assets, serving production and business; sewing materials; plastic beads; raw wood; raw materials, supplies and components imported into bonded warehouses; imported auto parts for automobile production and assembly; raw materials and supplies for the production of components for automobile assembly under the incentive program for automobile supporting industries.

Due to the general influence of the import-export situation, by the end of May 15, the unit earned VND 1,892 billion, equaling 43.7% of the assigned target and down 14.55% year-on-year. Mr Le Thanh Hai, Director of Ninh Binh Customs Branch, said there are four reasons for the decrease in budget revenue from import and export activities in the past five months.

First, due to the decrease in the number of declarations and the total import-export taxable value (the number of export declarations and trade turnover decreased by 7.9% and 5.4%, respectively).

Second, because many major products tend to decrease over the same period, such as electronic components, auto parts, fabrics and accessories for garments and footwear, leading to import-export turnover in the period decreased by 19.6% compared to the same period last year, reaching only US$1,843 million. As a result, taxable import turnover reached US$926 million, down 24.9%, and taxable export turnover reached US$917 million, down 13.5%.

Third, due to the implementation of tax refund policies according to Decree 101/2021/ND-CP of the Government, the total refunded amount in five months is nearly VND965 billion. VND 959 billion is the refund for the overpaid tax amount because enterprises can apply the tax incentive program for imported components for domestic automobile production and assembly; VND5 billion is the other tax refund as prescribed.

Fourth, implementing the tariff reduction roadmap committed in the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) decreases revenue.

According to Mr Le Thanh Hai, by the end of 2022, the Government has issued 17 Preferential Import-Export Tariffs for implementation in 2022 – 2027. Thus, even in 2023, many imported goods with high tax rates have been further cut in the following years.

Actively capture information from enterprises

Identifying the difficulties, challenges and factors affecting the budget revenue results, Ninh Binh Customs has urgently taken drastic measures to boost customs clearance activities in the area. In particular, upholding the motto "accompanying enterprises to overcome difficulties", the unit has sent customs officers to meet enterprises directly to guide customs procedures, promptly solve problems, to help enterprises reduce costs. This has created confidence for the business community in import and export activities, attracting more businesses to carry out customs clearance through Ninh Binh Customs Branch.

At the same time, Ninh Binh Customs has been offering several measures to boost import and export activities in the area, such as: accelerating administrative reform, creating maximum convenience for import and export activities and actively applying international standards and modern customs management processes to create maximum convenience for the business community while still ensuring strict supervision and management following regulations; reviewing, checking documents and supporting enterprises to apply tax incentives program on imported components for car production and assembly and technology program to support car production and assembly.

In addition, the branch has propagated and strictly implemented the "Customer Service Charter" Professionalism - Transparency – Efficiency"; asked customs officers in the unit to say no to harassment, trouble, abuse of position for personal gains, corruption, regularly grasp the situation and well maintain the operation of the Problem Solving Team to quickly solve difficulties and problems for enterprises during the customs clearance process.

To realize assigned tasks, Ninh Binh Customs has implemented solutions to prevent tax loss through inspection and supervision of customs process, tax management, post-customs clearance audit, specialized inspection, internal inspection, fight against smuggling and trade fraud; proactively reviewed, classified, recovered and handled tax debts through inspection and examination, etc. and strictly comply with regulations on tax collection, payment, exemption, reduction and refund to impose tax in a timely fashion.

Customs force coordinate to seize 1.7kg heroin VCN – Anti-drug Enforcement Team (Team 5), Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department (General Department of Customs) presided over ...

Mr Le Thanh Hai said that given by specific solutions, the unit has been applying to support enterprises with import and export activities will help Ninh Binh Customs realize assigned tasks in 2023