Cargo containers are loaded from a ship at Tan Cang- Thpt Npt Port in the southern city of Can Tho. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The execution ofguarantee for customs clearance will be piloted in 2021-22 in an effort toenhance trade facilitation, a customs official said.
Mai Xuan Thanh, Deputy Director of the General Department of Customs, said theproject was in its draft stage.
The implementation of guarantee for customs clearance would be divided intothree phases: pilot implementation in 2021-22, expansion in 2022-23 and officialimplementation from 2024, Thanh said.
Guarantee for customs clearance was a form of financial commitment that customsauthorities asked from import and export companies to ensure that they wouldfully implement their tax and fee obligations as well as comply with customsprocedures when they wished to clear customs before completing all customsprocedures as prescribed.
Thanh said guarantee for customs clearance was being applied in a number ofcountries, adding that this would help enhance trade facilitation throughspeeding up clearance.
This mechanism would also help firms to reduce costs from storage as well ashave greater business opportunities as their goods would be put intocirculation or production earlier.
Under the draft, the guarantee would be provided by insurance companies.
Firms would not necessarily have to have mortgage assets to get the guarantee,Thanh said, adding that insurance companies would look at the evaluation of thecompanies’ operation and financial capacity, instead of mortgaged assets, toprovide the guarantee.
“The mechanism of guarantee for customs clearance will bring more businessopportunities for firms,” he said.
The value could be based on the sum of tax firms must pay or the value of theimport/export batch of goods.
Thanh citied estimates of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation thatguarantees customs clearance would help lower administrative procedure cost by0.1-0.5 percent and customs clearance cost by 0.5-0.8 percent while it wouldincrease export by around 1 percent.
The draft project was scheduled to be submitted to the National Assembly forapproval next year.
Customs budget revenue up 21 percent
Updates from the General Department of Customsrevealed that budget reached more than 83 trillion VND (3.5 billion USD) inthe first quarter of this year, representing a rise of 21 percent over the sameperiod last year.
The customs authority said the significant rise in revenue in the first quarterwas due to the rise in import-export value which was up 6.8 per cent to reach 116.5billion USD in the quarter.
Especially, tax collection from the imports of automobiles and crude oil helpedboost budget revenue.
About 38,900 cars were imported into the country in the quarter, worth 848million USD, up 864 percent in volume and 646 percent in value. Tax collectionfrom car import totaled more than 11.5 trillion VND, up 886 percent.
Crude oil import totaled more than 2 million tonnes, up 2,347 percent. Taxrevenue from crude oil import reached 2.07 trillion VND, 20 times higher thanthe same period last year.-VNS/VNA
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