In order to support businesses and ensure smooth import and export activities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has directed units in the sector to arrange customs officers to perform tasks at all professional stages.

Customs officers of Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch prepare
personal belongings to implement "three on-spot". Photo: T.Hùng

From the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of Covid-19 has had a negative impact on the socio-economic of countries around the world and Vietnam, especially the outbreak of the pandemic from the beginning of May 2021, focusing on provinces, big cities, densely populated areas and workers, especially these localities with many large industrial parks, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

Localities applied social distancing under Directive 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister or to a higher degree, with many non-essential activities halted, many areas have been blocked which seriously affected production and business activities of enterprises; the circulation and transportation of goods faced many difficulties, the risk of supply chain disruption and production stagnation was very high.

In that context, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has implemented many solutions on organization, administration and human resources arrangement to ensure the clearance of goods.

At the online conference of progress in the third quarter and the working program of the fourth quarter of General Department of Vietnam Customs, Deputy Director of Customs Control and Supervision Department Dao Duy Tam said that the General Department of Vietnam Customs has proactively directed units throughout the industry to develop ready-made plans with solutions (in terms of information technology, infrastructure, equipment for pandemic prevention, arrangement and safety for the workforce, the number of officials and civil servants during the outbreak of Covid-19) to ensure the settlement of customs procedures for exported and imported goods, so that the customs clearance of goods is not interrupted, the goods supply chain not broken and provide maximum support for businesses while still ensuring customs management, following the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance.

In particular, deploying the establishment of groups to support and handle customs procedures for import and export goods, with lists of customs officers and phone numbers from the General Department, the Customs Department to Customs Branch for working 24/7 to promptly receive and handle customs declarants' problems to ensure quick clearance of goods, especially goods serving the prevention of Covid-19 such as: medical supplies, equipment, medicines, vaccines and biological products.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has directed the Customs Departments of provinces and cities to arrange a sufficient number of officers in relevant professional departments to work on administrative days, holidays, public holidays and overtime in order to carry out administrative procedures, customs procedures, customs inspection, supervision and tax administration procedures for import and export goods, ensuring continuous, timely and correct clearance operations.

According to the assessment of leaders of the Customs Control and Supervision Department, local customs units had also deployed a variety of forms to ensure support for businesses in import and export activities and customs clearance while ensuring safety against the pandemic, especially in areas applying social distancing.

At the customs units, desks for receiving the enterprise's dossiers were arranged, separate from the working areas of customs officers, and at the same time, officers were arranged to guide and receive the original documents of the enterprise, monitor and make a receipt to receive the dossier in order to manage the original documents submitted and presented by the enterprise, so that no dossiers were lost.

In the application-receiving area, screens for enterprises to look up receiving officers were installed; at the same time, posting zalo numbers to answer questions, contact phone numbers of customs officers receiving dossiers so that businesses could easily exchange information when necessary.

Organizing on-site inspection for carrying out customs clearance, liquidating documents at the scene, limit movements from the area of conducting physical inspection to the branch office; reducing clearance time; strengthen customs officers to support and guide enterprises in carrying out customs procedures; receive information reflecting the error of the declaration of ineligibility through the monitoring area provided by the port enterprise in order to determine the cause and guide them in a timely manner.

At the same time, arranging a separate working room (fully equipped with pandemic prevention conditions) for customs officers and employees to work with enterprises if necessary; prepare working space and conditions for systems to immediately deploy the backup plan, separate the working area of ​​the import-export procedure team, ensure the distance when directed by the superior.

Speeding up the scanning of goods, through the coordination and working directly with port businesses, agreeing to coordinate scanning goods to monitor and promptly update the containers that have been scanned or not in order to urge, as well as update the scanning results for monitoring to ensure the clearance time of goods for businesses in accordance with regulations.