The high-value import shipment disguised as blood cockles investigated and verified by HCM City Customs Department for criminal prosecution. Photo: T.H

Focusing on controlling targeted commodity groups

The import and export across seaports in HCM City is increasing and is forecast to surge in the remaining months of the year. HCM City Customs Department has implemented many solutions to closely control the flow of imports and exports. The department’s leaders has requested customs units to inspect targeted commodity groups with high risk of commodity policies, and to manage non-commercial goods imported via express delivery service or air, conditional imports and exports, goods required to ensure security, food safety and hygiene, pharmaceuticals, supplementary foods, and goods with high risk of origin fraud.

The specialized units are required to strengthen control and combat smuggling, trade fraud and illegal transportation of goods across the border gate. Especially, focusing on conditional imports and exports, general goods, goods for Covid-19 prevention and control; strictly supervise independent shipments, border gate transferred goods, goods in transit and goods stored in bonded warehouses.

At the meeting implementing the tasks in the remaining months, Director of HCM City Customs Department Dinh Ngoc Thang has requested units to apply measures to supervise and control via the information database system, inspection and monitoring equipment, such as container scanners, surveillance cameras, positioning seals and electronic scales.

“Heads of units must improve their responsibility in control at all stages, especially for shipments in the green channel, yellow channel, which have not yet been had a physical inspection,” the Director said.

In addition, the department has closely patrolled and monitored sea border gates, airports, international postal border gates, express delivery and other places under customs control areas, especially large areas and water routes.

Heads of customs branches are requested to review the supervision in their area to detect and handle smuggling and cross-border illegal transportation of goods.

Improving efficiency of risk management

From early in the year, the municipal customs departments inspected and handled dozens of customs offences, including large smuggling cases such as the case of importing goods disguised as frozen blood cockles seized in early October. Currently, the department has expanded the investigation and considered criminal prosecution for this case. The case of importing electronic products by a company in Binh Duong province has been documented for criminal prosecution.

To promote the efficiency of information classification in smuggling and trade fraud, the department’s leader has required units to enhance quality and efficiency in implementing the scheme on risk management for abusing the declaration in green channels for imports and exports. Comply with regulations and guiding documents on risk management in customs operations.

In addition, units must promote information collection, risk analysis of goods imported and exported across border gates, work with the Risk Management Department and the Customs Enforcement Team to improve efficiency of identifying targeted goods, inspecting goods via container screening, effectively use facilities and resources and enhanced the rate of detected violations, thereby, providing results of suspicious pre-screened containers, as a basis for the next stages.

Improve efficiency of channel classification, including the classification of criteria applied according to specialized management policies, and criteria group based on the risk assessment by Customs such as results of inspection, examination, post-customs clearance audit, goods analysis and classification to propose appropriate classification method; strengthen information collection and analysis to control risks for imports and exports, people and means of entry and exit to promptly detect violations.