Strictly managing the operation of Customs brokerage agents

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Operations at Da Nang Border Gate Customs Branch. Photo: N. Linh

Rectifying the operation of Customs brokerage agents

The General Department of Customs (GDC) has just guided municipal and provincial Customs Department to rectify enterprises as Customs brokerage agents to strictly fulfil their obligations and responsibilities of Customs brokerage agents in accordance with the law.

The enterprises that have not fulfilled the obligations of Customs brokerage units as described in Article 13 of Circular 12/2015/TT-BTC (detailing the procedures for issue of Certificate of training in Customs declaration; for issue and revocation of Customs broker code; the procedures of accreditation of operations of Customs brokerage units), must quickly remove their violations, carry out the reporting regime, and report the changes of information (name, business addresses) of Customs brokerage units, inform the change of Customs brokers (returning the staff code in accordance with provision in point d, clause 1 of Article 10 of Circular 12/2015/TT-BTC and requesting for issue of code for new brokers who are eligible) until 15th December 2017. Over the deadline above, if unlawful enterprises do not remove their violations or continue their violations, the municipal or provincial Customs Department shall report those cases to the GDVC to suspend or terminate their operations under the law.

The municipal and provincial Customs Departments shall carry out the standardization of data and information of Customs brokerages in their localities; rectify the brokers to strictly follow the regulations on rights and obligations of Customs brokerage agents as stipulated in Article 13 of Circular 12/2015 / TT-BTC; to comply with the provisions in clause 2 of Article 5 of Circular No. 38/2015 / TT-BTC on the use of the account and digital signatures of Customs brokerage agents.

To monitor the implementation of the periodic reporting regime of Customs brokerage agents; the change of information of Customs brokerage agents, the Customs brokers not reported to the General Department of Customs according to regulations. In cases where the Customs brokerage agents fail to rectify and continues to breach the law, the Customs Departments shall report to the GDVC to suspend or terminate their operation in compliance with the law.

In particular, the GDC said that the requirement for Customs brokerage agents on submitting and presenting brokerage contracts for all cases of Customs clearance through Customs brokerage agents and the confirmation of goods owners on the bill of lading must comply with the provisions in clause 2, Article 5 of Circular No. 12/2015 / TT-BTC.

GDC noted that cases where Customs procedures are carried out through Customs brokerage agents, Customs declarants are required to present their Customs broker cards during the examination of Customs dossiers and physical inspection of goods.

Most of the Customs brokerage agents fail to comply with regulations

As of 15th November 2017, the GDC has accredited Customs brokerage agents for nearly 900 enterprises and issued Customs broker codes for nearly 1,500 individuals.

Although number of Customs brokerage agents has increased significantly during the past, and policies for establishment and operations of Customs brokerages have been specified, in a recent conference of the GDC, Mr. Nguyen Quang Son, Head of office from the Customs Supervision and Management Department (GDC said that there had been many shortcomings in the operations of Customs brokerage agents. Actually, Customs brokerage agents have not yet developed and operated in a correct manner are mainly due to the failure of compliance with the law. The common situation was that Enterprises that acted as Customs brokerage agents did not use digital signatures and Customs broker codes granted by the GDC. Most of the enterprises, which were goods owners, only hired the agents to sign the fraudulent letters of authorization and made Customs brokers their staff. That meant, the Customs brokers would make a Customs declaration by using a letter of authorization which allowed them to be on behalf of the goods owner to implement Customs procedures of the goods as if they were staff of those enterprises. Such situations accounted for 90-95%.

This force completely overwhelms the official Customs brokerage agents because of flexibility, less formal procedures such as signing contracts and cheaper prices compared to signing contracts with official Customs brokerage agents. Therefore, in order to compete with the declaration services, most of the Customs brokerage agents must operate in the same way, that means providing declaration services in the form that Customs brokers act as employees of companies which are good owners

In fact, the implementation is not in accordance with legal regulations leading to the consequences that were warned of the GDC to enterprises. Some import-export enterprises gave Customs brokerage agents other organizations and individuals who are not Customs brokerage agents their digital signatures and accounts to log in VNACCS system to fulfil and submit the Customs declarations, and digital signatures. But those organizations and individuals then used digital signatures and accounts for wrong purposes, for example: declaring for other owners or using information of goods owners to open Customs declaration. The lax management, issue and use of letters of authorization have created opportunities for some people to perform acts of self-profiteering, smuggling and trade fraud

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In addition, the Customs brokerage agents have not understood properly and fully complied with the principles in management of the operation of Customs brokerage agents in accordance with Circular 12/2015 / TT-BTC. The most common violation is the failure to implement the quarterly reporting regime. According to the regulations, if the agents fail to report three consecutive times, the GDC shall terminate the operation and businesses shall not be permitted to propose to be re-accredited within 2 years. Customs authority has detected cases that Customs brokers work for an agent but still carry out procedures for accreditation for another agent; there even was a case of using fraudulent profiles of the agent staff to request for accreditation of Customs brokerage agent.