Vietnam to simplify customs checks

Customs officials checks a batch of goods (Photo: moit.gov.vn)

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -Vietnam plans to hasten the reform of customs checks to save time andcosts for businesses and facilitate trade.

At a meeting on February 19 discussing a project about renovating the checkingmodel for export/import product quality, Minister and Chairman of theGovernment Office Mai Tien Dung said the simplification of customs checks hadseen significant improvements in recent years.

Many ministries have been making efforts to reduce the number of goodscategories subjected to customs checks and to simplify administrativeprocedures, as well as tackle overlaps in customs checks between differentministries.

However, Dung said risk management in customs control had not beenefficient as expected. He said a number of checks were carried out but fewbatches of goods were found to fall to meet quality requirements, just 0.47 percent.

Overlaps in customs checks still existed, Dung said, adding that some goodscategories were still subject to checks by two or even three agencies, whichwasted time and money.

“Inefficient customs checks are a burden to businesses,” he stressed.

Vietnam should boost reforms and innovate customs checks for greaterefficiency, Dung said, adding that efficient customs checks would create roomfor accelerating economic growth.

He said the Government had asked the Ministry of Finance to develop a projectabout customs checks reforms so local customs departments would be the centralunit to carry out checks at border gates (except for products related tonational security and defence and quarantines).

“Reforms must ensure the quality of export/import goods and createfavourable conditions for businesses,” he asked.

Dung said that it was also necessary to have a mechanism for transparentinformation exchanges between ministries and agencies in customs checks tofacilitate import and export activities.

A representative from the Private Sector Development Committee said firmsexpected more reforms in customs checks and about 90 percent of businessesagreed with the Government’s policy of making customs departments the centralunit to carry out checks at border gates.

In the past five years, time for customs checks reduced from an average ofseven days to one to three days.

According to Mai Xuan Thanh, deputy director of the General Department ofCustoms, the percentage of goods batches which must be checked before clearancefell from 25.93 percent in 2015 to 19.1 percent in 2019.

Thanh, however, said many products had not had technical standards as a basefor carrying out checks, which remained an issue.

Statistics showed that as of the end of December, there were about 70,000products subjected to customs checks.

Overlaps still existed in 25 goods categories, Thanh said.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said the project should be implemented intwo phases.

The first phase (2020-22) would pilot the renovation of customs checks andin the second phase (from 2023 onward), the focus would be placed onreviewing and amending laws as well as merging quality control agencies intocustoms.

A representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed founding aworking group to boost the efficiency of customs checks reforms./.

VNA