Fostering Reform of Customs Administrative Procedures

Circular 128 brings many changes in customs procedures, particularly focusing on facilitating import and export activities of enterprises.

 

Specifically, sessions 8 and 9 of Article 11 of Circular 128, corresponding to Article 10 of Circular 194/2010/TT-BTC, have fundamental changes in the customs declaration for the export and import of goods.

 

Regarding the customs documents, Circular 128 is much simpler than the former circular. Specifically, businesses used to hand in the original documents such as the bills and the detailed list, which causes more complexity. Currently, the businesses only submit a copy of the bill and the detailed list and are responsible for their declaration.

 

The registration location for customs declaration papers under Article 13, which is not specified in Circular 194, has been added. Accordingly, the registration location for customs declarations is divided into three specific cases.

 

First, goods which are not allowed to be transported through border gates must be registered on the customs declarations at the local customs points that manage the storage of the goods at the border gates or the port of destination.

 

Second, goods which are allowed to be transported through the border gates are registered on the customs declarations at local customs points that manage the storage of the goods at the border gates or at the local customs points that manage the goods transferred to the ports of destination.

 

Third, goods imported and exported based on specific types; the places of registration for the customs declaration will be guided in correspondence with each type under this circular.

 

This provision also applies to electronic customs procedures (regulated under Circular 196/2012/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance).

 

Circular 128 (Article 13) also provides additional conditions and time to register customs declarations. Another case related to the registration for custom declarations is also added to the Article 14. Accordingly, the businesses are allowed to give additional declarations if "does not affect the application of policies to manage the exported and imported shipments for additional declarations". This has removed difficulties for enterprises, in case that they want to submit the additional declarations in term of quantities and other norms without paying any additional amount of tax.

 

An important new point of Circular 128 is that it has flexibility, enabling companies to comply with their tax payment duties. In addition to the provisions of tax payment, Circular 128 (Article 19) is "open" to allow the taxpayers to pay tax in foreign currency or Vietnamese dong when the official price is not announced or listed.

After the announcement of the official price, the taxpayers who receive foreign currency payments from foreign customers will pay the difference in tax payment (if any) in the foreign currency.

 

Where the tax is payable in foreign currencies and are temporarily paid in Vietnamese dong, the exchange rate is the average inter-bank exchange rate, as announced by the State Bank of Vietnam at the time of the imposed tax. The exchange rate is also applied consistently until the exchange rate is accounted between the State Treasury and the customs authorities.

 

In addition, Circular 128/2013/TT-BTC also regulates the exchange rates of the tax payable in case there are differences of rates as announced on Nhan Dan Newspaper and the website of the State Bank of Vietnam (Article 98). In this case, the taxable rate for the exports and imports is based on the exchange rate announced by the State Bank of Vietnam at the time of the imposed tax and put on the website of the State Bank of Vietnam.

 

This is a new provision that particularly interests both businesses and customs authorities, and it is in accordance with international practices. Accordingly, the customs authority is responsible for pre-determining the codes of imported goods, as required by businesses.

 

According to Circular 128 (Article 7), the organisations and individuals may request pre-determined codes of the exports and imports. This is different from the provisions of Circular 149 in which the predetermined codes are only applicable for some certain cases.

 

Article 7 specifies the records and procedures of the predetermined codes of the imported and exported goods, which the customs authorities will provide before conducting customs procedures. The written documents will announce the predetermined codes, provided by the General Department of Customs, with the maximum effect of 3 years and the codes will be the proof for the customs declarations and be filed with the customs documents (attached with 01 copy) to complete the customs procedures.

 

This regulation will help businesses proactively select the items and types of goods to pre-calculate the business performance before dealing with the import and export contract transactions. It helps avoid disagreements with customs authorities in determining the tax code affects, as well as side impacts on the clearance of cargo.