Customs officials of Huu Nghi Border Gate Customs Branch, Lang Son Customs Department check goods through online supervision. Photo: H.Nụ

Declaring fraud is complicated

Talking to Customs News, a Huu Nghi International Border Gate Customs Branch representative said that the unit has discovered that many businesses have made incorrect declarations of name, quantity and type of goods, code, and origin for tax evasion. In order to avoid responsibility if they were discovered, smugglers also established many companies, wrote incorrect addresses, businesses did not have signs and often changed their headquarters.

After being discovered, the enterprise refused to receive the goods and did not cooperate with the customs authority. In particular, many businesses also carried out acts such as importing goods with counterfeit trademarks, violating intellectual property rights (IP); importing goods that do not conform to the customs declaration in terms of type, quantity, value and goods banned from import.

Following the direction of the General Department, on August 17, Huu Nghi Customs conducted a physical inspection for 48 items of imported goods of Hoa Nam Investment and Trade Co., Ltd., headquartered in Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi.

Through inspection, Huu Nghi Customs discovered two items including 1,272 pairs of sandals with faked BOSS brand, worth over VND50 million. Right after that, Lang Son Customs Department advised the Chairman of the People's Committee of Lang Son province to issue a decision on sanctioning administrative violations No. 145/QD-XPVPHC dated October 8, 2021 for Hoa Nam Investment and Trade Co., Ltd. due to the act of importing counterfeit goods, with a monetary penalty of VND108 million, forcing the destruction of all infringing goods.

On July 21, the unit continued to conduct physical inspections for nine imported items of Vi Thien Nhan Trading and Services General Company Limited, and discovered 1,044 rice cookers, mechanically controlled, trademark of IHTOSFILBA, infringing intellectual property rights for TOSHIBA trademark, the value of exhibits is over VND70 million.

For this case, Lang Son Customs Department has also advised the Chairman of the People's Committee of Lang Son province to sanction administrative violations against Vi Thien Nhan Trading and Services General Company Limited due to the act of importing goods bearing signs of trademark infringement.

Before that, at the beginning of March 2021, the Chi Ma border gate Customs Branch checked two declarations of four containers under the type of independent transportation to Phuc Loc Ninh Binh ICD of Hai Lam Logistics Co., Ltd. located in Bac Ninh City. As a result, through physical inspection of goods, Chi Ma Customs discovered one declaration of 14 items. In fact, there were no items; 17 line items were not included in the declaration; the other declaration had 13 line items but actually, these items did not exist. However, there were 13 items that did not have customs declaration.

Actively inspect and control

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department, said that the situation of smuggling, trade fraud, fake goods and illegal transport of goods across the border in the future would continue to see complex developments and be unpredictable.

The key products were mainly consumer goods, goods with high tax rates, goods under specialized management, quality control, food hygiene and safety, aquatic animals and aquatic animal products, and medicines, medical supplies for pandemic prevention. The methods of operation were increasingly diversified and sophisticated. In particular, taking advantage of the postal services and express delivery services to transport smuggled goods inland would cause many difficulties for inspection and handling by the authorities.

In order to promptly detect and prevent this situation, Lang Son Customs has directed border-gate customs units to increase the information collection of businesses, especially those that had been handled for this behavior. Actively, proactively inspect and strictly control import and export goods, especially sensitive goods, in order to promptly detect acts of smuggling, trade fraud and tax evasion causing revenue loss for the state budget.

In addition, in order to prevent fraudulent acts of enterprises passing through Lang Son province, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has increased investment in modern machinery, installed at the border gate, assigned the Lang Son Customs Department to manage and operate container scanning.

In order to strengthen the management, inspection and control of goods imported and exported through the border gates, Lang Son Customs has directed border-gate customs units and specialized divisions to strengthen professional measures, focusing on forcing enterprises and authorized persons to notify Customs authorities about information of imported goods before carrying out customs procedures for bringing goods through border gates.

Strengthening customs supervision at inspection sites and gathering places; supervising cargo warehouses, promoting mobile surveillance to effectively prevent acts of smuggling and fraud in the declaration of import and export goods.

Besides that, Lang Son Customs has actively coordinated with competent forces in the area to collect information, strengthen patrols and control at the trails and open paths of the border in order to promptly prevent, detect and arrest cases of violations; communicating and educating the people about the provisions of the law in the fight against smuggling and illegal transport of goods across the border.