The abolition of produce for certification of origin certificates will help the Customs authority save hundreds of thousands of working hours each year; importing businesses also save tens of billionsof VND. This is one of the remarkable contents of the administrative procedure reform submitted by the General Department of Vietnam Customs recently.

Customs officers of Thanh Hoa Customs Department perform their duties.
Photo: N.L

According to the Customs Control and Supervision Department, last year, many legal documents weremade in the direction of transparency and detail, trade facilitation to import and export activities for the business community, have been submitted to agencies for promulgation. The policies have strengthened exploitation and application of databases of ministries and sectors, minimised unnecessary documents in the administrative procedure dossiers to cut costs of administrative compliance for relevant organisations and individuals.

Legal documents like Decree No. 46/2020/ND-CP and Decree No. 64/2020/ ND-CP internalise the international commitments, including new and breakthrough regulations in customs management.

Specifically, goods in transit through ASEAN countries must only carry out one customs declaration on the ACTS system in the departure country. This declaration is a document for carrying out customs procedures when goods transit via intermediate countries as well as arrive inthe destination country.

The compliance with this regulation ensures management and control of the status of goods from the departure country to the importing country, as well as coordination and handling among countries in case of arising problems during transportation.

Decree 64/2020/ND-CP stipulates that for temporarily admitted goods under the Istanbul Convention, the goods owner can use the ATA carnet to carry out the procedures for temporary import, temporary export, re-export and re-import (replacing the customs declaration), and the guaranteeing agency is that which issues the ATA carnet and pays taxes andfees for goods temporarily imported for re-export of the destination country.

When implementing customs procedures for transit or temporary admission of goods per the two above provisions, the goods owner willguarantee or deposit the consignment with an amount of 110% of total import tax value and other taxes with the highest level in the country where the goods are in transit.

In addition, Decree No.67/2020/ND-CP amending and supplementing articles of Decree No.68/2016/ND-CP regulating conditions for duty-free business, warehouses, sites for customs clearance, inspection and supervision, has cut five business conditions and simplified 14 business conditions and reduced 22 documents of the total 52 documents of the procedures for recognisation of duty-free shops, warehouses, yards, and sites.

It contributes significantly to customs modernisation reform, cutting costs of administrative compliance and increasing competitiveness for the Vietnam’s investment environment.

To support enterprises affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has submitted to the Ministry of Finance Circular No. 47/2020/TT-BTC for promulgation on the time limit for the submission of the Certificate of Origin for imported goods applied amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with many contents on supporting and accompanying enterprises to overcome difficulties.

Specifically, the circular allows an extension of time limit for submission of C/O (enterprises are allowed to submit C/O within ayear from the date of issue) andaccept C/O using e-signature, e-seal or photocopy/ scanned copy of C/O to submit to the customs.

Recently, it has proposed abolishing the procedure for certification of the origin declaration (paper declaration), using the electronic customs declaration to replace the origin declaration as the basis for the competent agencies to issue the vehicle registration certificate for imported cars, motorbikes and other means of transport that have been approved by the Government.

According to calculations based on survey results from businesses and reports of municipal and provincial customs departments, if the procedure is abolished, the customs will save hundreds of thousands working hours per year, and importing businesses will also save tens of billions of VND.

In 2018, the number of origin declarations was 248,452,total cost was more than VND 25 billion and thetotal time for certification by the customs officers was 496,904 hours.

In 2019, the total number of origin declarations was 421,777, the total cost was more than VND 43 billion andthe total time for certification by the customs officers was 843,544 hours.