Door Opened for AEO Exporters, Importers

After a two-year pilot (2011-2013), the AEO Programme has obtained encouraging results. 12 companies took part in the programme.

 

All companies joining the AEO Programme (with the first phase from January 14, 2012 and the second phase from July 7, 2012) said that this policy created the most favourable conditions for their business activities by shortening the time and reducing expenses in completing customs clearance procedures.

 

The first and most recognisable effect is the significantly shortened time for clearance procedures for import and export shipments. A representative of Sumidenso Company (Japan) said that it previously took 1 - 2 hours to complete clearance procedures for a shipment but the time has now shortened to 30-45 minutes. Binh Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Company (BSC) said it earlier spent half a day handling procedures for a batch of products but it now needs only 1 - 3 hours. Minh Phu Seafood Corporation (MPC) needed one week to complete customs procedures from declaration paper opening to delivery but it now takes just one day for the job. The cost also falls by US$80 - 100 per container.

 

According to AEO companies, the recognition of customs authorities for being AEO companies also helps boost their prestige when they export products to the world market and assert the foothold on the market.

 

According to customs authorities and businesses, the Circular 86/2013/TT-BTC has easier AEO-joining conditions.

 

The Circular 86 shortens the duration for law compliance assessment of enterprises to 24 months instead of 36 months as specified in the Circular 63. Such time shortening is compliant with the statutory limitation of administrative violation settlement provided in the Decree 97/2007/ND-CP.

 

Moreover, according to new regulations, procedural violations (fine value is less than VND2 million) are not considered law violations, suitable to international practices as in South Korea and Japan. Assessing law compliance of enterprises is principally based on the nature of violations like smuggling and illegal cross-border transportation of goods across, fraud and tax evasion, fined more than one time. The number of State management agencies taking part in assessing law compliance of companies is reduced to only two agencies, namely local customs and tax agencies.

- As of mid-April 2013, the General Department of Customs added two new companies to the AEO Programme, bringing the total to 14 (including nine FDI companies and five Vietnamese companies) - Customs sector targets to bring the number of AEO companies to 20 by the end of 2013.

Export and import conditions for AEO Programme are also eased to match current capacity and capability of enterprises. Specifically, the Circular 63 and Circular 105 provide an annual turnover of US$350 million for the first-class prioritised companies and US$70 million for the second-class prioritised companies.

 

The Circular 86 specifies that annual export turnover of first-class prioritised enterprises is at least US$200 million and the value for the second-class prioritised companies is US$50 million while no value is applied to third-class prioritised companies (high-tech companies).

 

According to customs authorities, given new values, nearly 100 companies will be recognised as AEO companies by 2020.

 

AEO companies will enjoy added clearance priorities to suit electronic customs procedures. For instance, they are allowed to use simple documents for customs clearance in case data of customs authorities are out of order. They do not need to register material consumption limits with authorities and submit quarterly liquidity reports to customs which cover export, import and stocking of materials.