Customs officers at 3rd Zone Hai Phong Seaport Customs Branch inspect imports and exports. Photo: N.L

Import and export turnover surges

Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs show that, although the total import and export turnover of the country in May decreased by 3.4% to US$63.5 billion compared with April, the total trade in goods in the first five months went up 16% to US$306.15 billion compared with a year ago. The import turnover and exported turnover increased by 15.3% and 16.7% to US$152.8 billion and US$153.3 billion, respectively.

According to the representative of the Import and Export Duty Department, the taxable import turnover of major commodities soared compared with the same period of the previous year such as crude oil up 4.6% in volume and 44% in value to 4.1 million tons and US$2,569 million; petroleum products up 17.1% in volume and 121.6% in value to 3.3 million tons and US$3,345 million.

In addition, in the first five months of the year, the statistical volume of import products went down (except petrol and crude oil), but due to the increase in their prices, their import turnover grew by 22.6%. In which, items with no statistical value increased by only 6.5%.

The growth in the import and export value has had a great impact on Customs’ revenue in the first five months of the year. As of May 31, the Customs sector’s revenue saw a year-on-year increase by 16.8% to VND186,649 billion. The revenue from crude oil recorded the highest increase of VND2,128 billion. The revenue from crude oil and other petroleum products helped revenue increase by about VND8,621 billion.

The representative of the Import-Export Duty Department said that due to the surge in domestic consumption demand in the last months of 2021 and early 2022, the country's economy continues to maintain its growth rate in the first months of 2022. The current price of Brent crude is fluctuating in the range of US$107 - 110/barrel, which had a positive impact on crude oil revenue in the first five months of the year.

The sharp increase in customs revenue in the first five months of the year has led to public concerns that the economy has just recovered and businesses still face difficulties whether there is a situation of revenue inflation.

According to a representative of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry has reported to the Government and the National Assembly to make adjustments to the policy of revenue collection. The Ministry proposed to issue a series of policies of exemption, reduction, and extension of taxes, fees, charges and other revenues to support businesses, which focus on enterprises, small and medium enterprises, helping them maintain production and business activities and overcome difficulties amid the pandemic.

The Ministry of Finance also said that the structure of budget revenue is shifting towards a more sustainable direction. Accordingly, the rate of revenue from import-export activities depends on many factors of the external market such as revenue from crude oil, petroleum products, raw materials for textiles, garments, footwear, telephones and accessories, computers, imported electronic products and chemicals.

Strengthening anti-revenue loss

In order to implement solutions for revenue collection in 2022, which were issued in Resolution 01/NQ-CP and Resolution 02/NQ-CP, the General Department of Vietnam Customs issued Directive 439/CT-TCHQ on "comprehensively and drastically taking measures to facilitate trade, improve the efficiency of state management, and prevent revenue loss in performing revenue collection in 2022”.

After five months of implementation, the Customs sector has implemented solutions to achieve the highest targets. The Customs has regularly supported and removed difficulties related to customs procedures and tax policies for the business community.

In addition, Customs has also strengthened administrative reform by applying information technology, improving the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness, contributing to attracting foreign investment, boosting export development and economic growth, and creating more favorable conditions for the management of revenue collection.

Customs has strengthened anti-revenue loss by supervising and checking the performance of customs procedures, post-clearance audit, specialized inspection, anti-smuggling and trade fraud; focused on checking prevention of fraud in quantity, value, code, origin and trademark.

Customs has strictly controlled and combated illegal transportation and smuggling of goods, importing goods with fake trademarks, goods infringing intellectual property rights, banned goods, arbitrarily trading goods subject to customs control; reviewed and handled tax debts incurred before January 1, 2022, and prevented new debts in 2022.