The Government of Vietnam has issued Resolution 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016 on business support and development to 2020. The resolution specifies five groups of tasks and solutions, including two groups directly related to the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Customs). This shows the need of customs reform for better business service. In the first six months of 2016, the electronic portal of the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDC) provided public services online, with 73 for administrative procedures of Grade 3 and Grade 4 (accounting for 44 per cent) and 95 administrative procedures of Grade 1 and Grade 2 (accounting for 56 per cent), effectively deployed the VNACCS/VCIS system, gradually accelerated the application of information technology to all aspects of customs operations, and signed cooperation agreements on electronic export and import tax collection with 28 banks. A total of VND80,134 billion was collected electronically, accounting for 90.1 per cent of total revenues undertaken by the customs sector.
Linking and leading business support programmes
An official from the General Department of Vietnam Customs said that one of major customs policies is operating the electronic clearance system and deploying the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window. This programme shows the firm resolution of the customs sector. With the ultimate goal of reducing clearance time and costs for businesses, thus enabling them to compete with rivals from other countries in the region and the world, Decision 1722/QD-TCHQ dated June 10, 2016 set objectives of shortening cargo clearance time at border gates to 10 days applicable to exports and 12 days applicable to imports in 2010 and respectively to less than 36 hours and 41 hours in 2020, reducing the rate of shipments imposed specialised examinations in customs clearance period from current 30 - 35 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of 2016, and ensuring a 10 per cent reduction in administrative compliance costs.
To date, the National Single Window (NSW) has officially connected with nine out of 14 ministries (the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance - General Department of Customs, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Health) with a total of 31 administrative procedures, over 90,000 sets of documents and 6,000 joining enterprises. The customs sector officially launched the E-manifest programme, received 100 per cent of ship records and electronic clearance for entering and exiting seagoing ships at nine customs departments in major trade hubs with the participation of over 90 per cent shipping lines, shipping agents and forwarding companies. It coordinated with relevant bodies to draft and promulgate Joint Circular 77/2016/TTLT-BTC-BKHCN dated June 3, 2016 by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology directing the deployment of the National Single Window to State inspection procedures into the quality of goods imported into Vietnam under the management responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Joint Circular 80/2016/TTLT-BTC-BTTTT dated June 13, 2016 by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Information and Communications directing the deployment of the National Single Window in the field of information and communication.
Specialised inspection - Barrier needs to be lifted
In late 2015 when specialised inspection was proposed for application in trade-busy border gates, the customs sector confronted numerous difficulties from both authorities and enterprises. Mr Nguyen Thanh Binh, former General Director of Post-clearance Inspectorate, said that specialised inspection is very complicated and involved the interests of many units. Therefore, without political determination, the customs sector was unable to carry it out. So far, specialised inspection has been imposed in nine major trade-busy border gates, thus helping businesses to reduce costs and time for specialised inspection. However, according to many companies, the efficiency of specialised inspection is not high because specialised inspection authorities only receive documents, but do not make decisions on customs clearance. Declaration forms are still forwarded to ministries and competent branches for verification. This barrier needs to be removed to create good conditions for enterprises. For its part, the General Department of Customs has repeatedly sent its requests to relevant bodies to jointly work for enhancing the effectiveness of specialised inspection. It has also urged competent ministries and agencies to issue full lists of commodities subject to specialised inspection, adopt national technical standards and norms for items subject to specialised inspection to check the quality of goods. At present, a total of 87 legal documents on specialised inspection managed by ministries and central authorities are being reviewed for amendment and supplementation according to Decision 2026/QD-TTg. These lists must be modified soon enough for the business community to do business more favourably.
Le Hien
Vietnamese
