Under the revised Decree 08/2015 of the Government, a regulation on the authority of leader of Criminal Investigation Team will be added and other regulations on anti-smuggling will be amended.

Customs inspects goods. Photo: Quang Hung

The contents of professional customs control measures are described from Article 101 to Article 104a, with the content of responsibility for collecting and providing customs information specified from Article 105 to Article 109 of Decree 08 dated January 21, 2015, amended and supplemented in Clauses 51, 52, 53, Article 1 of Decree 59/2018 of the Government dated April 20, 2018.

According to the General Department of Customs, the problem is that Decree No. 08/2015 does not specify the authority of the leader of the criminal investigation team as and the authority of his deputy to suspend or stop the departure of means of transport, contraband goods or illegal cross-border transport of goods.

Decree 08/2015 also does not specify the form of stopping means of transport.

According to Decision 1399 of the Ministry of Finance dated June 20, 2016 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department under the General Department of Customs, the Criminal Investigation Team is a unit of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department and responsible for the customs control, inspection, verification and application of measures described by the law to identify violations and criminals in the customs control sector.

In addition, in the anti-smuggling work, there is no legal basis to provide customs information to foreign customs authorities or international organisations.

Therefore, the draft decree will supplement the regulation on the authority of the leader of the Criminal Investigation Team and their deputy and specify the form of stopping means of transport.

Clauses 2 and 3 of Article 103 are amended and supplemented as follows:

2. Authority to carry out temporary cessation of departure and transport stopping

a) The Director of the Customs branches, the Leader of the Customs Control Team affiliated to the Customs Department at provincial, inter-provincial or municipal levels, the leader of the Smuggling Control Team and the leader of the Criminal Investigation Team affiliated to the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department can suspend or stop the departure of means of transports within customs areas.

If there are reasonable grounds that, unless such means of transports have been stopped, exhibits, materials or transports may intentionally vanish or be destroyed, customs officials on duty have authority to stop these vehicles for inspection and immediately report this case to competent persons as stipulated in this clause.

b) The Leader of the Marine Control Team, the leader of the Criminal Investigation Team the affiliated to the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, the leader of the Customs Control Team affiliated to the Customs Department at provincial, inter-provincial or municipal levels, have authority to stop or suspend the departure of means of transports in inland waterway areas or territorial waters in conformity with regulations enshrined in the Vietnam's Law of the Sea.

Suspension of stopping of the departure of transports must be decided by those allowed as prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article. With regard to temporary cessation of the departure of inland waterway and sea transports, customs authorities must send a report to the Maritime Administration Authority.

In addition, the draft decree also add regulations on providing information to foreign customs authorities and international organisations in line with Vietnam Law and international treaties in Article 16