The General Department of Customs have quickly answered questions of Vietnam Logistics Association and the Logistics Service Enterprises Association in the north on the implementation of Decree 128/2020/ND- CP.

For questions on the deadline for providing customs information for ships in entry, the General Department of Customs answeredPoint a, Clause 1, Article 66 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP amended in Decree 59/2018 / ND-CP stipulates that for the manifest, bill of lading: “At least 12 hours before the scheduled arrival time for ships with a voyage of less than five days, at least 24hours before scheduled arrival time for ships with other voyages.”

Regarding provisions for ships with voyages of less than 12 hours, the customs agency noted problems with the declaration deadline for means of transport with a voyage of less than 12 hours to amend and supplement in a decree replacing Decree 08/2015 / ND-CP and Decree 59/2018 / ND-CP.

For proposals related to the regulations on fines for unintentional and intentional acts, the General Department of Customs said according to Clause 1, Article 2 of the Law on the sanctioning of administrative violations:“Administrative violations are acts of violations caused by individuals or organisations, breaching regulations of the law on State management but not being a crime and must be administratively sanctioned.”

Under this regulation, the fine for administrative violations is done when individuals and organisations are at fault, regardless of intentional or unintentional faults. Therefore, the regulations on sanctions for administrative violations comply with the above regulation.

With regard to imposing fines of individuals to organisations that enterprises raised problems, the General Department of Customs said Clause 2, Article 24 of the Law on sanction of administrative violations, Point a, Clause 3, Article 5 of Decree 128 / 2020 / ND-CP stipulates the fine level for individuals is equal to it for organisations.

The fine level specified in Article 8 of Decree 128/2020 / ND-CP is the fine level for organisations. The determination of the fine level for individuals and organisations must comply with the above regulation.

Therefore, the General Department of Customs said enterprises only apply fines of individuals in Article 8 of Decree 128/2020 / ND-CP that are against the law and have no basis for consideration.

For imposing fines of individuals to organisations, the General Department of Customs said Clause 2, Article 24 of the Law on handling of administrative violations, Point a, Clause 3, Article 5 of Decree 128/ 2020 / ND-CP stipulates the fine level for individuals is equal to of the fine level for organisations. In which, the fine level specified in Article 8 of Decree 128/2020 / ND-CP is the fine level for organisations. The determination of the fine level for individuals and organisations must comply with the above provisions.

Therefore, the General Department of Customs said enterprises only apply fines to individuals in Article 8 of Decree 128/2020 / ND-CP that are against the law and have no basis for consideration.

Illustrative Photo: (Nghi Son port customs officers are inspecting goods.
Photo H Nu

To ensure the obligations of customs declarants, the Customs Law prescribes the rights of customs declarants like checking goods sampling, using goods inspection services of inspection organisations (specified at Point c, Clause 1, Article 18 of the Customs Law, Clause 3, Article 3 of Circular 14/2015 / TT-BTC); and request the customs office pre-determine the goods code (Point b, Clause 1, Article 18 of the Law on Customs, Article 23 and Article 24 of Decree No. 08/2015 / ND-CP amending and supplementing the Decree No. 59/2018 / ND-CP).Regarding goods and the proposal for not sanctioning administrative violations mentioned by firms, according to the General Department of Customs, the non-sanctioning of administrative violations is clearly specified at Point c, Clause 2, Article 18 of the Customs Law 2014. Point c, Clause 2, Article 18 of the Customs Law 2014 stipulates obligations of customs declarants for legal liability for authenticity of declared contents and submitted documents.

Therefore, the General Department of Customs requests enterprises comply with the above regulations to enjoy support mechanisms of the law to ensure accuracy in customs declaration and avoid errors in first implementation.

Besides, under the provisions in Article 11 of the Law on the sanctioning of administrative violations, Article 6 of Decree 128/2020 / ND-CP, the first violation is not in the case of not being administratively sanctioned. Thus, the General Department of Customs said the proposal on not imposing administrative sanctions for first violations is not unfounded.

For classification of goods, Article 26 of the Customs Law 2014; Clause 2, Article 16 of Decree 08/2015 / ND-CP stipulates classification of goods means that the customs office must base customs formalities, technical documents and information on the composition, physical and chemical properties, features and uses of import-export goods to determine names and codes of goods according to the Vietnamese List of Import and Export.

Whether the customs office where the enterprise opens the declaration accepts or not the declaration of enterprises depends on the customsformalities of the import-export shipment at customs clearance time to determine the name and code of those goods.

Therefore, for a problem on applying different HS codes for same goods at different customs branches, the General Department of Customs requests firmsreflect on the specific problems arising so that the customs authority has basis to consider and reply according to regulations.