Despite having to cope with the pandemic and storms that took place in August and September, the trade flow in the "Indochina junction" area has always been maintained to operate smoothly and promptly thanks to the efforts of customs officers and employees of Bo Y Customs Branch in nearly three months of implementing "three on-spot" at the border gate.

All procedures are carried out quickly and conveniently even in the pandemic
and stormy conditions. Photo provided by Bo Y Customs

Both pandemic and storm prevention

When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out again in some southern provinces, leading to the risk of infection in the Central Highlands, local governments gradually tightened anti-pandemic measures. Since the end of June, 18 officers and employees of Bo Y Customs Branch have "wrapped up" personal belongings to stay in the headquarters to fulfill "three on-spot", to ensure professional operation. In particular, there are 14 officers and employees perform duty at Bo Y international border gate and four officers perform duty at the Kon Tum Customs Professional Team.

Bo Y customs officers and employees have spent nearly three months of "settlement" at a remote border gate, far from their families with risk of disease infection when they often contact with people and vehicles on entry and exit at the border gate. Meanwhile, the officers performing "three on-spot" only reached about half of the number of troops, so the daily workload increased significantly.

The Central Highlands region is currently in the peak of the rainy season, causing difficulties at Bo Y international border gate Customs Branch. A few days ago, storm No. 5 (September 11) caused landslides in some places at Bo Y international border gate area, causing difficulties in the circulation of goods through the border gate. The campus of the branch was flooded with mud, officers and employees had to clean up during their break times. Storms also caused short-circuited barrier at export gate, causing fires and damage to the electrical system. It took two days, when the storm cleared and the rain stopped, for the problem to be fixed. During that time, the Sub-department must carry out supervision in the export barrier area manually, then recorded the data and then feed into the system.

Meet all import and export requirements

With timely and effective implementation of the instructions of the People's Committee of Kon Tum Province, the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the Gia Lai - Kon Tum Customs Department on the pandemic and natural disaster prevention and control, Bo Y Customs Branch has ensured that the implementation of customs procedures for import and export goods and means of transport on entry and exit takes place normally. Besides that, promptly removing difficulties and obstacles, facilitating cargo clearance and means of transport without causing congestion and backlog of goods at the border gate and ensuring the requirements on pandemic prevention as prescribed.

As a result, the volume of imported and exported goods, means of transport on entry and exit, and the revenue paid to the State budget at the Bo Y Customs Branch remained stable. Since the beginning of the year, the unit has done customs procedures for some 4,000 sets of import and export declarations which are mainly electric energy, sugar, coffee, rubber, raw wood, fertiliser, wood products, seedlings, breeds.

As of September 21, import turnover hit $202 million, up 14% over the same period in 2020; State revenue collection reached VND 195.7 billion, up 14% over the same period last year and reaching 76% of the target for 2021.

Tran Thanh Van, Manager of Bo Y Customs Branch, said that the main source of revenues at the unit were value-added tax from imported goods such as electric energy, preliminarily processed rubber, raw sugar, and raw lumber. The main source of export tariffs came from iron and steel products and fertilisers.

Imported electrical energy had specific characteristics in terms of transmission and supply, so the revenue is quite stable. In Laos, the weather was rainy season, so the amount of electricity imported from Laos to Vietnam increases, leading to an increase in turnover and revenue from this item in September by more than half compared to the previous month. On the other hand, agricultural projects in Laos continued to expand, so the export turnover of machinery, equipment and materials for export increased, which included two main export taxable items, iron and steel and fertiliser. Rubber prices in the world and domestic markets were also recovering, so the import situation for this product tended to increase compared to the previous year.

In the future, it is forecast that the situation of imports and exports in the area tends to decrease in turnover and budget revenue due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rainy and stormy weather situation in the area, affecting circulation of goods through the border gate. Bo Y Customs Branch will continue to facilitate and support businesses to quickly clear import and export goods, means of transport and passengers on entry and exit; ready to support firms as requested when carrying out customs procedures. Thereby striving to perform well the State budget collection in 2021 with the goal of VND 256.8 billion in 2021.