Customs officers of Huu Nghi border gate customs branch at work. Photo: H.Nu

By the end of November 14, the Customs sector revenue rose 22.46% year-on-year to VND329,544 billion.

The rise resulted from the increase in the crude oil price, leading to the increase in the prices of products such as gas, plastics, chemicals, etc. In addition, the price of iron and steel, iron ore, iron and steel products significantly rose, causing the revenue from this commodity group to rise.

Besides, the number of imported CBU cars of all kinds rose 1.6 times. In particular, in 2021, many wind power projects have been implemented, resulting in a surge in revenue from components, machinery and equipment for the projects.

To achieve the above results, from the beginning of the year, the Customs sector has reformed administrative procedures towards strengthening information technology application, creating all favorable conditions for import and export activities to support businesses.

According to a representative of the Import-Export Tax Department under the General Department of Customs, from the early year, the General Department of Customs has issued documents on solutions to budget collection in 2021. In particular, Directive 215/CT-TCHQ dated January 15, 2021 on enhancing the efficiency of state budget collection, and Official Letter 119/TCHQ-GSQL dated January 11, 2021 on improving capacity of customs inspection and control. Accordingly, affiliated and attached units have performed drastic tasks.

One of the solutions that brought great results is trade facilitation. In particular, Customs has advised, reported, and submitted to competent authorities for promulgation legal documents, contributing to the reform of administrative procedures in the direction of enhancing the application of information technology and improving the business environment and national competitiveness, removing difficulties for production and business activities of enterprises; contributing to attracting foreign investment, promoting the development of export production, supporting economic growth; and creating more favorable conditions for the management of tax collection by Customs.

In addition, to promptly support the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic, Customs also reported to the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Government for promulgation Resolution 106/NQ-CP on handling of donated goods for the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic entitled to incentives; and Decision 1921/QD-BTC on expanding the list of goods exempt from import tax.

Besides removing difficulties for businesses to adapt to social distancing, the Customs sector has taken measures to reduce face-to-face contact such as consulting taxpayers through the electronic customs system, minimizing direct contract; facilitating physical inspection and certification for businesses and strictly complying with anti-pandemic regulations, minimizing procedures, thereby reducing difficulties to help businesses operate smoothly and prevent disruptions of supply chains.

In order to improve the effectiveness of state management and prevent revenue loss, the General Department of Customs has offered solutions to combat trade fraud and revenue loss and achieved remarkable results.

To prevent fraud in VAT refund, on September 21, 2021, the General Department of Customs issued Official Letter 4539/TCHQ-TXNK requesting provincial and municipal Customs Departments to strengthen information collection, identify signs of risks to take appropriate inspection and supervision measures.

As of October 31, 2021, the Customs conducted 150 inspections, requested collecting VND288.6 billion and paid to the state budget VND227.1 billion; conducted 1,328 post-customs clearance audits with the total imposed tax amount and administrative fines of VND545.7 billion. The actual payment to the State budget was VND494.7 billion.

It is forecast that the import-export turnover in 2021 is likely to hit US$600-650 billion. Thus the budget revenue from import and export activities also sees a year-on-year surge, helping reduce the Central budget deficit, the representative of the Import-Export Tax Department said.

Although so far, the budget collection has been completed, to complete the task in the rest of 2021, Customs is still enhancing solutions to prevent revenue loss through post-clearance audits, anti-smuggling and anti-trade fraud.

Thus, the Customs will pay attention to collecting information, identifying risks to take inspection and supervision measures, reviewing names, codes and tax rates of goods during and after the customs clearance stage to discover inaccurate declaration of codes, names of goods or unclear or insufficient declarations or goods names to enjoy low tax rates or special tax incentives. Accordingly, the customs agency will focus on inspecting items in the list of imports and exports at risk of classification and tax rate.

Moreover, the customs agency will inspect value of goods and enterprises with high risk to miss consignments which were undervalued without timely consultation and treatment. The customs agency will guide items with high tax rate.

Furthermore, the General Department of Customs requests its units to review and classify debts to collect and handle tax debts towards the goal that the tax debt ratio as of December 31, 2021 is lower than December 31,2020. The country’s customs agency also requires its units to review tax funds in 2021 so that the tax refund will meet the right beneficiaries in January 2022 at the latest.