Simplification of Specialised Management Procedures for Exports and Imports

Speaking at the conference, CIEM Director Nguyen Dinh Cung stressed that specialised management over exports and imports is now unclearly defined and overlapped. One item is managed differently from ministry to ministry. Each agency requires different papers, thus confusing businesses. Exporters and importers are squeezed from all sides, from authorities to shippers and port operators.

 

Sharing this, Pham Vinh Quang, an expert from USAID GIG Project, said, exporters and importers, apart from the burden of customs procedures, have to face many issues relating port operators and shipping lines. They are also placed under tonnes of examination procedures from other authorities. He noted that if customs clearance time in Vietnam is reduced just one day, the business community will save up to US$1.6 billion a year, which comes from procedure costs, warehousing and hiring.

 

Ms Dang Binh An, Former Deputy General Director of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, said that over 60 percent of imports are subjected to specialised management and quality or quarantine inspection. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development manages most but definitions and descriptions are quite unclear. Besides, a commodity is subjected to overlapped management by various authorities. For example, milk or tea is imposed to specialised examination of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Health and others.

 

Workshop “Implementing Resolution 19 of the Government: Simplification of specialised management procedures for imports and exports” is part of the USAID Governance for Inclusive Growth Programme (USAID GIG), held by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in a bid to help simplify Vietnam’s customs procedures in the spirit of the Prime Minister’s Resolution No. 19/2014/NQ-CP dated March 18, 2014. The workshop is an activity of a series of working programmes to enforce the Resolution 19 to improve the business climate and enhance the national competitiveness of Vietnam.

Besides, the bureaucratic ways customs officers do upset enterprises. Although electronic customs procedures have been in use, they still need to present required paper records or they are asked to show papers at different customs offices, which take more time from businesses. Disappointingly, a customs declaration paper has just a 50-line blank space for declaration and if companies declare more contents, they have to use more sets of declaration, each set of declaration paper must be inserted a payment invoice. Hence, not few enterprises have to hire specialists to fill in their declaration forms, resulting in more costs for this work.

 

In explanations to the complexity and costliness of specialised management procedures for exports and imports, CIEM Director attributed it to arbitrariness in enforcement. Quite often, civil officials tell businesses to do some procedures undefined in the laws. To put this to an end, heads of competent agencies must strictly penalise violating officials.

 

Mr Ngo Minh Hai, Deputy Director of Customs Monitoring and Management Department under the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDC), emphasised that what enterprises are annoyingly facing are what customs authorities are facing. GDC will coordinate with relevant authorities to review policies to seek solutions to difficulties against businesses.

 

Ms Dang Binh An stressed that authorities must listen to businesses and make changes to reduce the time and cost incurred by businesses. Besides, it is necessary to issue standards for products for reference when inspection and control are performed. Authorities must issue circulars to guide methods of management, inspection and supervision for every stage of customs clearance.

 

She added that authorities should use samples and test results from each other or aggressively simplify procedures to reduce steps in export and import.

 

Attending companies also said that authorities should review the list of goods subjected to specialised management to minimise goods in such list. They also asked the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Maritime Administration (Vinamarine) to work with shipping firms to have reasonable charging methods.