Quang Ninh Customs: “Post clearance audit” to instruct enterprise to comply with regulations

Through the task of post clearance audit, Quang Ninh Customs has met checked criteria that are violation detection, reminder and guidance for businesses. In the photo: Professional activities at Mong Cai Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department). Photo: Quang Hùng

In 2020, facing the developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, following the instructions of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, customs authority would only conduct inspection when enterprises show signs of violations and had the consent of enterprises. Quang Ninh Customs Department has concentrated on checking, arranging and supplementing customs officials specialised in post clearance audit to suit with the situation to effectively deploy the task.

Up to now, Quang Ninh Customs Department has completed 96 cases of post clearance audit. In particular, 36 cases are on-site inspection, reaching 80% of the target and 60 cases conducted at the headquarters of the customs authority, 87% of the plan. Accumulated to October 15, this unit collected VND 11.54 billion in to State revenue through the "post-clearance audit", reaching 115% of its target (VND 10 billion) and the rate of detecting violations through conducting post clearance audit at enterprises’ headquarter accounted for 86%.

From September 15 to October 15, the unit completed 18 cases of inspections, including eight cases of on-site inspection and 10 cases at the headquarters of the customs authority; collecting VND 184.56 million to the State revenue.

Talking to a reporter, Deputy Director of Quang Ninh Customs Department Tran Quang Trung said the information collection had been focused by the unit to evaluate specifically cases of enterprises showing signs of violation, clarifying the signs to have a basis for issuing inspection decisions to suit the situation and ensure completion of the tasks and targets of post clearance audit plan in 2020. Before conducting an audit, the unit issued notifications and when the enterprise agreed, the inspection decision would be issued. Therefore, the inspection process has ensured pandemic prevention and ensures the requirement to reduce time and facilitate businesses to maintain production and business activities as well as still meet checked criteria that are violation detection, reminder and guidance for businesses.

“Despite facing many difficulties in implementing inspections and limit in time, the task of post clearance audit has been flexibly deployed by customs officials during the pandemic. The information collection and assessment has helped to select the right subjects, localize inspection issues to enhance efficiency in the post clearance audit," Trung said.

According to Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga, Deputy Director of the Mong Cai Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department), post clearance audit at the department is mainly done by checking items and declarations. Through post clearance audit at the branch, the common mistake was the incorrect declaration of the goods code. On the other hand, when the customs authority suspected the enterprise has made incorrect declaration on valuation, enterprises would be requested for explanation and verification. Besides that, the branch conducted post clearance audit for shipments subject to specialised inspection. Through the post clearance audit, the enterprises have complied with customs laws. After each post clearance audit, most businesses had not repeated their mistakes. From the beginning of the year up to now, there has been no case of businesses making mistakes for incorrectly declaring codes and values ​​of the items that were declared earlier. The mistakes detected in post clearance audit mainly occurred in newly arising items and this was not intentionally committing mistakes by enterprises.

According to Tran Quang Trung, it was important that after each inspection, the Customs authority focused on analysing, evaluating and finding out the cause of the mistake, guiding enterprises to comply with the regulations and law, not to repeat errors. The unit will continue to build detailed plans, synchronously implement many measures to collect and process information about enterprises and be flexible in the post clearance audit, with the goal of enhancing the knowledge of enterprises about customs law and raising awareness of compliance with law.