E-customs Clearance: All Sides Ready

With an intermediary system, specialising in transmitting and entering data, customs agencies will have only to manage connections. The intermediary system is the value added network (VAN) will receive all information from enterprises, which want to use e-customs import and export declaration services.

Necessity of e-customs

The volume of exported and imported goods of Vietnam has seen a sharp increase in recent years. The volume of imported and exported goods via Haiphong’s ports, for example, is so huge that, according to Tran Quoc Chinh, deputy director of the Information Technology Department of the Haiphong Customs House, the local customs agencies collected over VND 4,000 billion in tax. The figure was put at over VND 6,000 billion in 2004 and expected to reach around VND 8,000 billion in 2005. The figures have proven a high year-on-year increase in the volume of imported and exported goods while the number of staff members of customs agencies cannot increase. Therefore, it is necessary for customs agencies to apply modern technology to their management activities.

In the traditional procedure, enterprises have to send their import and export declaration documents via mail, which takes them at least half a day. Meanwhile, the volume of cleared goods in the Haiphong and Chua Ve seaports is very large. Without the application of modern technology to local customs agencies, enterprises will face many difficulties in having their goods cleared.

Nguyen Dinh Chung, chief executive of the Duyen Hai Transportation Company, said that if enterprises use e-customs services they could reduce the number of staff members in charge of import and export procedures by 60 per cent to three or four people in comparison with the current procedure. However, enterprises should assign qualified staff members with good understandings of e-customs declaration, taxes and customs clearance, for this task.

E-customs procedures will help reduce costs for enterprises, minimising unofficial costs and improving the effectiveness of customs agencies’ management. Also, this will be compatible with customs agencies of other countries in the region and the world, meeting the international integration process. A concentrated management will help customs agencies to shift from the examination of each lot of goods to the management of information about import and export activities of enterprises, thus helping combat smuggling and trade fraud.

Readiness

The Prime Minister has issued the Decision 149/2005/QD-TTg on the piloting of e-customs procedures in the customs houses in Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City. So far, the Haiphong customs house has almost completed its preparations in terms of infrastructure and human resources for this purpose. According to the evalution of the Haiphong Information Technology Department, enterprises, which will pilot the use of e-customs declaration services, and VAN have been ready. The enterprises have invested in developing infrastructure facilities with high-speed Internet lines to ensure that data will be transmitted rapidly.

FPT is an enterprise piloting VAN and providing free software for enterprises selected to use e-customs declaration services. According to the Haiphong customs house, 18 enterprises have been selected to join the programme. Nguyen Anh Quoc from FPT said that VAN would act as an e-post office, receiving electronic documents sent to customs agencies by enterprises and vice versa, ensuring no illegal access to the system.

Regarding enterprises, which are allowed for e-customs declaration, Chinh said that at first only trading enterprises could use e-customs services but customs agencies could serve all kinds of enterprises. With the use of e-customs declaration services, the Government and the Ministry of Finance aim to promote economic and trade exchange and foreign investment attraction. Therefore, a change of the working style of the customs service is necessary. Good news for the customs service is that enterprises want to use e-customs declaration services as a tool to reduce time and costs, as well as illegal practices.