The General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) has asked municipal and provincial customs departments to tell their customs branches to tighten control for goods deposited in bonded warehouses.

Bonded warehouses in Ha Noi. Photo: Ngoc Linh

The GDVC has asked customs departments to comply with provisions of Article 83 to Article 88 of the Government Decree 08/2015 (revised in Decree 59/2018); Articles 51c, 52,52a, 52d,52dd, and Article 91 of Circular 38/2015 (revised in Clause 31, 32, 59 of Article 1 of Circular 39/2018); Article 42, 43 enclosed with the GDVC’s Decision 1966 dated July 10, 2015 and other guiding documents.

For goods from abroad to arrive in the bonded warehouse, the customs officer will check information stated on the declaration form, the handover record and related documents with information sent to the VASSCM system by the bonded warehouse operator to update information of the goods in a timely fashion.

If there are grounds to identify that the goods have been deposited in the bonded warehouse, the Customs officer must send information of goods to the EcustomsV5.

If there is a lack of grounds to identify that the goods have been deposited in the bonded warehouse, the officer must conduct a physical inspection at the bonded warehouse and handle any violations.

For goods leaving bonded warehouses for export, customs must instruct the declarant to fully and accurately declare information about goods in the independent shipping declaration in Circular 38/2015 (revised in Circular 39/2018) and related documents.

The GDVC notes that if beyond the scheduled time to start shipping goods, the information of goods to leave the bonded warehouse, has not been updated on the VASSCM system, Customs will carry out a physical inspection at bonded warehouse to identify the status of the goods and handle any violations.

Local customs branches are asked to strengthen risk assessments for each bonded warehouse operator, importer and exporter by regularly inspecting and supervising their implementation of customs procedures.

The GDVC has also asked local departments to strengthen internal inspection for officers in charge of supervising the goods deposited in the bonded warehouse, and monthly check the supervision for goods arriving, stored and exiting warehouses/yards of bonded warehouse operators.

Local customs departments must direct officers to daily monitor and work with the operators to review and check information about the quantity of goods get in and get out the bonded warehouse with the statement sent by operators to the system whether in line with regulations or not.

If detecting violations, customs must fine offenders or apply preventive measures.

Local customs departments must request and instruct bonded warehouses to fully and accurately update information on goods and send information to the VASSCM system.

If the operator has not fully performed its responsibilities, leading to loopholes for firms to abuse smuggling and commercial fraud, Customs must investigate and report to the GDVC to terminate the operation of the bonded warehouse.

In addition, the GDVC suggested local customs units control and supervise through the Positioning Seal System and Surveillance Camera System.