Revision of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP: To change the time of the result notification on declaration distribution

Professional operation at Customs Sub-Department of the Noi Bai International Airport. Photo: N.LINH.

Change due to signs of violation

According to the drafting committee, the current legal documents (the Law on Customs, Decree 08/2015/ND-CP, and Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC) have not specified the time of the result notification on declaration distribution to the customs declared. At present, in order to create favorable conditions for the customs declarants in arranging the plan to carry out the customs procedures and the import and export procedures, the VNACCS system is designing and implementing in the direction of “the time that the Customs offices notify the result of distribution is the time that the customs declarants register the information on the customs declaration officially”.

The advantage of the current regulation is that the notification of the results of distribution at the moment when the customs declarants register the official declarations ensure transparency, help the enterprises take the initiative plan to get goods, and production because the declaration made up to 15 days in advance, so that, the enterprises can save time and cost, and increase the production and business efficiency. However, there are some inadequacies: For the import goods: Due to some international transportation routes to Vietnam, the total time of transportation is shorter than the time allowed for pre-registration of declarations (At least 12 hours for sea freight; about 2 hours for air freight, immediately for land transport because the shipper can collect goods at the border and deliver the goods immediately upon request), so, the Customs declarants register the declarations in advance, based on the results of distribution require the overseas customers to ship the goods. Therefore, it is possible that: If the distribution was Green Line, Yellow Line, fraudulent in quantity or category of goods would be done; If the distribution was Red Line, the goods would not be shipped at that time and the enterprises would cancel the declaration. For the export goods, according to the current regulations, the customs declarants only need to declare the export goods gathering place (without the need to certify sufficient gathering) that they are eligible for registration of declarations 15 days in advance. Consequently, the customs declarer can take advantage of this regulation to unload or pack the undeclared goods with declarations classified as Green or Yellow Line

Ensure the management requirements

Therefore, to ensure the convenience of the customs procedures for the enterprises to execute the customs law well, encourage the domestic production, while encouraging export, strengthening the customs management for the high risk objects, the proposed decree draft regulates the specific cases that will announce the results of the distribution immediately upon the opening of the declaration, the specific cases that will announce the results of the distribution of the goods collected in warehouses, yards, places.

For the export goods, the Customs office will announce the result of distribution on the e-customs data processing system right after receiving, registering and checking information on the customs declaration.

For the import goods, the Customs office will announce the result of distribution on the e-customs data processing system right after the goods are collected at the warehouses, yards and ports as notified by the enterprises of warehouses, yards, ports, except for the following cases: The goods imported for production, processing, manufacturing for export, export processing; The goods imported through land, railway and river ports; the goods from the non-tariff zone to inland, the goods exported, imported on the spot; The other import goods.

In addition, the draft also specifies the case that the customs office notices the result of distribution on the e-customs data processing system right after receiving, registering and checking information on the customs declarations for goods of customs declarants: Within 2 years ago, from the registration date of the customs declarations for import shipments determined by the Customs office as not being sanctioned for smuggling, illegal goods transporting across borders; not being sanctioned for acts of tax evasion or fraud; not being sanctioned for other customs-related violations with fine levels under the competence of Director of the Customs Sub-Department and the equivalent titles or higher; no overdue tax over 90 days; Within the one year ago, up to the time of declaration registration, the enterprises have the number of cancel declarations less than 5% of total export declarations of the enterprises and the number of cancel declarations is less than 5 declarations.

At the conference to get comments of the enterprises on the Decree draft 08/2015/ND-CP, some enterprises said that if the Customs did not distribute at the time of opening the declaration, gave the result when the goods arrive at the warehouses, it would lengthen the clearance time for the businesses. In addition, it is regulated that one of the conditions to be distributed immediately after declaring is no sanction for the other customs-related violations that is difficult for the enterprises, because in the process of customs declaration, failure to understand the rules may lead to misstatement in declaring and be sanctioned administrative penalties, such as the classification of HS codes.

Explaining about the regulations, a representative of the Customs Supervisor and Management Bureau said that, according to the decree draft, the enterprises do not have to wait for new goods to be declared, but when having new goods, they will just receive the result of the distribution. However, only a number of goods objects, the enterprises are high risk, the distribution results will be announced when the goods collected in warehouses and ports. The draft also specifies the case that the distribution results will be announced immediately upon declaring to facilitate the enterprises, such as import goods for processing s, production goods for export.

In addition to provisions to strengthen the management of risk cause, the draft Decree amending and supplementing Decree 08/2015/ND-CP, many issues have been resolved by the drafting committee, it is appreciated by the enterprises. In particular, representatives of the Logistics Association appreciated that the drafting committee clarified the concept and regulation of transit goods and transshipment goods; the application of commodity policy for transit goods and transshipment goods. In addition, the decree draft also removes obstacles to the application of commodity policy for luggage of the immigration customers. The immigration customers carrying goods in excess of the duty exemption regulations that the goods belong to the specialized management shall be exempt from specialized management for the condition that the excess value does not exceed 10 million VND. Representatives of Vietnam Association of Seafood Production and Export said that the amendment of Article 36 on customs procedures, customs inspection and examination for export and import goods for processing; Import goods for producing export goods will overcome current problems in Decree 134/2016/ND-CP.