HCM City Customs Department has detected a series of smuggling cases in large volume via container scanners, the department said.

HCM City strengthens goods inspection via container scanner amid Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo: T.H 

Many smuggled shipments were discovered amid the peak of the pandemic

According to HCM City Customs Department, the department has strengthened goods inspection via container scanner.

In the third quarter alone, the department screened 5,152 containers and detected 268 suspicious containers. The information was transferred to customs offices where businesses opened declarations to inspect and detect violations.

Customs detected a shipment of blood cockles imported from Indonesia including hundreds of cartons of seahorses, abalone, bird's nests, frozen squid, and auto parts in early-October.

The Risk Management Department inspected the shipment via a container scanner. However, the inspection results are not consistent with the declaration in the manifest.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has requested 1st Seaport Customs Branch to suspend customs clearance and inspect the shipment.

Through a physical inspection, the branch detected nearly two tons of seahorses, abalone, bird's nest, frozen squid, and 40 boxes of auto and motorcycle parts, and 40 boxes of clothes and household appliances.

In September, the HCM City Customs department detected suspicious signs of the shipment that was declared as imported raw material for export production of Xin Dong Ya Crafts Co., Ltd. but the declared goods were inconsistent with the customs declaration. The department notified Long An Customs Department.

Through a physical inspection, Long An Customs Department detected 200,000 finished bags. The shipment is suspected of counterfeiting Vietnamese origin.

Earlier, at the end of August, Tay Ninh Customs Department inspected a shipment of goods imported by X. Tools Co., Ltd. (Vietnam) and discovered one electric hand pallet truck manufactured in May 2021 without a customs declaration. Tay Ninh Customs Department fined the company VND15 million and seized infringing goods.

Or the case of H.P Co.,Ltd that was fined VND114 million for importing banned goods by Dong Nai Customs Department.

Detecting hundreds of violations

To facilitate customs clearance and effectively prevent trade fraud and smuggling, HCM City Customs Department has performed inspection for imports and exports via container scanners.

Customs has also found tax fraud, especially tax fraud in the import of iron, steel and machinery from China.

Smuggled seahorses were discovered through container scanner.

Similarly, a company imported laser cutting machines and was classified into the Green channel. However, the Risk Management Department detected suspicious signs of the shipment and requested HCM City Customs Department to conduct a physical inspection. HCM City Customs Department discovered 9.2 tons of cold-rolled stainless steel without customs declaration. The taxable value of the undeclared goods was VND529 million, with an additional tax of over VND350 millionThe Risk Management Department selected a container of plastic products imported from China via Cat Lai Port to inspect and detected many items that were not declared, including thick aluminum alloy, a laser welding machine, stainless steel laser engraving machine, laser cutting machine, worth nearly VND1.1 billion with an additional tax of over VND112 million .

HCM City Customs Department has equipped five container scanners at three seaport customs branches and applied the minimum screening for each container scanner.

The department has applied risk management measures to identify companies and items at risk on the basis of analysis of frequency, signs of risks and violations to take appropriate control measures, thereby contributing to the fight against commercial fraud and revenue loss.

In particular, the pre-screening of import and export goods is not only effective in detecting violations, but also as a measure to check and assess the compliance with the law of customs declarants, creating an equal business environment among enterprises.