Scene of the online discussion. Photo: Q.H

On the morning of October 9, Customs Magazine organized an online discussion "Enterprises voluntarily comply with customs laws: Perspectives from both sides".

The discussion revolved around two parts: "Many benefits when the Customs agency pilots the Voluntary Compliance Program"; and "In what direction should the program to encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with the law be officially implemented?".

Speakers and guests participating in the discussion included: Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha, Director of the Risk Management Department - General Department of Customs; Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Research Department, Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM); Mr. Duong Quoc Phi, Head of Import-Export Department, Vietnam Precision Industry Co., Ltd. 1.

Customs strives to support businesses in compliance

Sharing the results of the Pilot Program to support and encourage businesses to voluntarily comply with customs laws, Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha, Director of the Risk Management Department (General Department of Customs) said that in 2019, the General Department of Customs advised the Ministry of Finance to issue Circular No. 81/2019/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance regulating risk management in customs operations.

In which, the Customs authority evaluates import-export enterprises at 5 levels of compliance, the highest level is priority enterprises (level 1) and the lowest is non-compliant enterprises (level 5). The Customs authority publicly announces the level of compliance of enterprises on the General Department of Customs' Electronic Information Portal.

The pilot program is divided into 2 phases.

In phase 1 (2022), the Customs sector recorded 213 participating enterprises divided by turnover and nature of import-export activities at 35 provincial and municipal customs departments.

In phase 2, the Customs sector aims to increase the number of enterprises participating in the Program by 20% (equivalent to 40 enterprises). In fact, during this phase, the Customs sector recorded 82 more enterprises participating (equivalent to an increase of 38.5%), bringing the total number of enterprises participating in the Program to 295 enterprises.

Thus, when enterprises access the General Department of Customs' Electronic Information Portal with their tax codes, they can look up the level of compliance of the enterprise and know the reasons for that level of compliance.

Continuing to support enterprises to improve their compliance level, in 2022, the Risk Management Department submitted to the leaders of the General Department of Customs to issue a Pilot Program to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws with the goal of providing solutions to accompany import-export enterprises to improve the level of compliance and reduce the rate of inspection by the Customs authority.

In which, the Customs authority assesses enterprises with a good level of compliance, thereby the rate of work that the Customs authority performs management tasks is lower and more resources are devoted to manage enterprises that are assessed as not complying well or not complying with the law.

Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha happily announced: Of the 295 participating enterprises, over 80% of enterprises maintained and increased their compliance level. Of which, 118 enterprises increased their compliance level from level 3, 4, 5 to level 2, 3; 135 enterprises maintained their compliance level (level 2, 3).

For enterprises with low compliance levels that are increased in compliance level, there will be a lower inspection rate, leading to faster customs clearance time.

For enterprises that maintain their compliance level (good compliance), the Customs sector will recognize that they must meet the criteria such as declarations and larger turnover, similarly, priority enterprises must also meet the criteria on declarations and turnover.

It can be said that the success of this Program is that enterprises maintain and increase their compliance level.

The Customs Department has learned many lessons during the implementation process on how to encourage businesses to voluntarily comply. In particular, the Customs Department and businesses have signed a memorandum of understanding to clearly define the tasks that both parties must do, agree on the activities that the Customs Department supports businesses, and point out the issues that businesses must pay attention to. This is the premise leading to the success of the Program.

Representing hundreds of member businesses participating in the Pilot Program, Mr. Duong Quoc Phi, Head of the Import-Export Department of Vietnam Precision Industry Co., Ltd. 1, said that before participating in the Pilot Program, businesses often passively complied with customs laws, often depending on the guidance and "hand-holding" of customs officers and civil servants. However, since participating in the Program, all business activities have been voluntary, shifting from passive to proactive compliance with the law.

“The pilot program brings many benefits to businesses in terms of time and cost. If businesses have a higher percentage of Green Lane declarations, goods will be released quickly. For Yellow Lane declarations, businesses must check customs documents, and it will take businesses more time to release goods. Similarly, for the Red lane declaration, in addition to checking the documents, the enterprise also has to physically inspect the goods. Instead of the enterprise bringing the goods from the border gate directly to the factory, the enterprise has to bring the goods to the Customs headquarters for inspection, which leads to additional costs, time, and human resources," Mr. Duong Quoc Phi shared.

Mr. Duong Quoc Phi gave an example: The production line of an enterprise only needs to delay any stage to cause the entire line to stop operating. Therefore, when the declaration is in the Green channel, the enterprise saves a lot of costs.

Thus, when the enterprise complies well with the law, the rate of Green lane declarations increases, the Yellow and Red lanes decrease, which means that both the enterprise and the Customs sector save time, costs, and resources.

Customs authorities need to develop a specific roadmap

Regarding the selection of enterprises to participate in the official Program, Mr. Nguyen Nhat Kha said that the General Department of Customs has drafted a decision to officially implement the Program to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws to seek opinions from provincial and municipal customs departments; business associations; Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), etc.

Accordingly, based on existing resources, the Customs authority expects about 600 enterprises to participate in the implementation of the official Program, which must meet the criteria to ensure that participating enterprises also receive benefits.

Therefore, when participating in the official Program, enterprises must self-assess their level of compliance and what content and work they want the Customs authority to support them with?

In order for the Customs to bring more efficiency from the official implementation of the Program, according to Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of the Department of Business Environment and Competitiveness Research, Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), the Customs sector first needs to develop a detailed, comprehensive plan with a specific roadmap for each year and a specific timeline.

Any program that wants to be successful must set clear goals and criteria, have accompanying solutions, and a specific roadmap.

At the same time, the Customs sector needs to focus on establishing a platform for general interaction, general warnings, and raising issues and answers about the customs sector. This is a tool that not only supports this Program but also supports the management work of the Customs sector and businesses.