Risk management: Detecting irregularities thanks to key management

	Imported wood will be classified and subjected to risk management
	The Laws on specialized management on the basis of risk management modified
	Risk management in VAT refund

The Customs force has applied a series of methods in risk management. Photo: T. Hoa.

In 2016, the Risk Management Department (under the General Department of Vietnam Customs) carried out the application of united measures and risk management techniques such as: Pilot measurement of compliance with Customs declarations for imported scrap items; application of risk management for means of transport and immigration passengers on the basis of the Aviation National Single Window; application of system for receiving and resolving information of immigration passengers at 9 international airports. Thus, the operations of risk management have been quite smooth, meeting the requirements of electronic Customs procedures. Criteria have been built to comply with the provisions of Law and requirements of State management over Customs; clearly defining the responsibilities of the risk management agencies.

At the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the Risk Management Department has constructed and implemented the Plan on risk management in 2016, which has regulated the control of the 18 significant risks on the basis of sectors, type of lines and areas, thereby discovering nearly 6,000 major cases of violation. In particular, the Risk Management Department implemented risk control for key commodities subject to smuggling and commercial fraud such as cancellation of Customs declarations; import and export of counterfeit goods, used machinery; iron and steel, thereby detecting thousands of shipments with an estimate of billions of vnd and 645 key enterprises.

For example, during the risk management for activities of cancellation of Customs declarations for imported and exported goods, there were 215 enterprises with risks of cancellation and modification of Customs declarations to be synthesized and analyzed to submit to Customs Departments of provinces and cities. In addition, the Customs force has discovered many cases of commercial fraud related to types, quantity or misstated code. Specifically, there were 14 enterprises importing ceramic products from China; 2 enterprises importing stone flour; 8 enterprises importing wood, chemicals, machinery, fabrics and functional foods with signs of commercial fraud on quantity; and 39 enterprises importing consumer goods with other violations. The Risk Management Department has proposed to establish criteria on examination and inspections, thereby increasing several billions of vnd of Customs revenue.

The Risk Management Department has also played an important role in scanning before, during and after Customs clearance for risk analysis. There have been 16,512 cargo parcels and 16,604 cargo containers scanned before Customs clearance, with 268 containers having a high risk of violation, and 28 violated containers, especially 8 containers with ivory. Also, during scanning 50,979 containers in Customs clearance, the Customs force has discovered 564 violated containers (0.1%) and implemented physical inspections of 100 enterprises in the field of import and export of consumer goods, electronic products, machinery and steel ... Through scanning before and during Customs clearance, the Customs force has provided a list of 303 enterprises and 1,000 Customs declarations to transfer to Customs post-clearance audit teams for processing.

In addition to these achievements, the Customs Risk Management force has also acknowledged that the rate of clearance inspections was in accordance with the requirements of Customs management but the quality of Customs inspections for classifying channels was quite weak. The rate of Yellow Chanel has tended to increase because the list of goods subject to specialized inspections has not been reduced. The rate of Customs declarations switching Channels was low but concentrated in several Customs Branches. The reason was that IT infrastructure was not uniform, consistent and standardized; the construction of the service system for data analysis, processing and risk assessment was slow; the coordination and exchange of information to other agencies out of Customs was not really effective.

In the near future, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will continues to build and promote the quality and efficiency of the risk control Plan in 2017; thereby accelerating the implementation and application of technical measures in risk management operations, focusing on the thematic control for imported and exported goods. Also, enhancing the quality and efficiency of collection and processing of information as well as improving the quality and efficiency of classification of Customs Channels; encouraging businesses to voluntarily comply with the Customs Law.

Compliance Management - an advanced Customs management method VNC- Risk management in general and compliance management in particular are useful tools which help raise efficiency ...