Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Do Thanh Quang shared and encouraged Tam Son International Company Limited to participate in the Program. Photo: T.H

Creating maximum favorable conditions

According to Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Do Thanh Quang, implementing Decision No. 1399/QD-TCHQ dated July 15, 2022 of the General Department of Customs on the Pilot Program to support and encourage enterprises to voluntarily comply with customs laws (hereinafter referred to as the Program), Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has actively promoted and signed a memorandum of understanding to recognize 20 enterprises participating in the Program. However, 3 members had their membership revoked due to violations during their participation in the Program.

To support enterprises, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has developed an Action Plan to send to 17 participating enterprises and periodically notify quarterly the situation of import-export activities, the situation of violations and provide recommendations affecting the level of compliance of enterprises.

At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department sent a list of enterprises participating in the program to all under and directly under units to support and facilitate enterprises. Specifically, the names and phone numbers of officers and civil servants who are focal points at the General Department, Department, Branch level, and focal points of enterprises; customs officers assigned as focal points at the Department and Branch levels are all responsible civil servants with high professional qualifications to best support enterprises.

At the customs sub-departments at border gates and outside the border gates, priority gates and signs are arranged to check documents, and simultaneously, assign civil servants with professional qualifications to check documents and goods of enterprises participating in the Program.

Along with that, develop a coordination regulation with the port warehouse unit to have a separate area for the actual inspection of goods of member enterprises; assign leaders and civil servants of sub-departments to monitor and urge implementation according to the requirements of focal units regarding support for member enterprises.

For customs declarations of member enterprises, highly qualified officials are assigned to check documents and inspect actual goods to best support enterprises; create conditions for quick customs clearance; promptly propose solutions to handle and resolve or report to superiors in cases beyond their authority, etc.

Raising the level of legal compliance

To accompany the Customs agency in effectively implementing the set goals, enterprises regularly evaluate their operations, refer to factors affecting the level of compliance recommended by the Customs agency to assess internal risks and external risk factors for prevention, continue to maintain the current level of compliance and strive to improve the level of compliance, etc.

After 2 years of implementation, monitoring and evaluating the compliance level of member enterprises, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that enterprises have made positive changes in compliance with customs laws, with 4 enterprises raising their compliance level from level 4: average compliance and level 3: high compliance to level 2: very high compliance.

With the results achieved, the Program has received many positive responses from the business community when enjoying the benefits of reduced inspection rates, support for convenient customs procedures, and proactive prevention of violations during import-export activities.

In addition, businesses all realize that participating in the Program brings the partnership between the Customs agency and businesses to become a trusted partner, businesses constantly spread the benefits of the Program to other partners and import-export businesses. At the same time, it also helps businesses in managing and controlling their import-export activities, proactively preventing violations. This is the prerequisite factor to improve the level of legal compliance of businesses.

To meet the requirements of expanding the Program, according to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, it is necessary to research and develop a separate software for the Program to interact between Customs and enterprises, creating conditions for member enterprises to be able to look up information provided by the Customs authority every quarter in periodic notifications of information on the company's operations such as: number of declarations, types, turnover, level and reasons for the enterprise's current compliance level, etc.

This not only helps enterprises to promptly control and limit risks within the enterprise but also proactively adjust and correct errors and violations through the implementation of periodic notifications to enterprises.

For companies operating warehouses and ports, it is necessary to coordinate with the Customs authority to have a mechanism to prioritize private doors, quickly load and unload goods, and minimize the time for receiving and delivering goods for enterprises.