Officers of Vietnam Post Corporation, Lang Son branch at work. Photo: H.Nu

700 declarations processed per day

Decree 18/2021/ND-CP, dated March 11, 2021, amended a number of articles of the Government’s Decree, 134/2016/ND-CP, dated September 1, 2016. It now stipulates that a goods shipment or a package with value not exceeding VND 1 million will be exempted from import duty. In Lang Son, some individuals have abused policies to divide orders of low value and sent goods via express delivery service to avoid tax.

According to the Lang Son Customs Department, between January and November, the number of goods sent via express delivery and postal services reached about 2.1 million, with a turnover of over US$6 million. The goods stopped at Huu Nghi International Border Gate account for a large volume of this number. Between March and the end of October this year, goods imported under these services increased dramatically at border gates in Lang Son province.

The representative of the Express Cargo Customs Procedures Team (under Huu Nghi Customs Department), said “about 500-700 declarations of imports have been processed via express delivery services per day at the branch.” Although the number of declarations sharply increased, the import turnover of each declaration was very low. The value of imported packages is under VND 1 million.

Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department, Nguyen Huu Vuong, said “the department has detected that many goods owners abused the exemptions for goods sent via an express delivery service to evade tax.” From July, border gate customs branches discovered a group of people who have regularly received goods with the same address, phone number and ID card.

This division of packages, parcels and declaration of low value goods are tricks to evade tax, Vuong said.

Strengthening control

Facing this situation, the Lang Son Customs Department has requested customs branches to take measures to strictly control goods imported via these services.

The local customs department requires border-gate customs branches to strengthen inspections of imports, strictly supervise the declaration of imported goods and allocate codes to assess the value of the shipment. Customs branches are required to closely inspect importers who regularly send goods as gifts via the express delivery service.

Customs branches must request enterprises to submit customs declarations and documents related to their goods. If the goods are not gifts, the sender is required to re-declare the value of the goods.

The department also asked the customs branches to assign officers to monitor declarations of low-value imported goods. Also, they’ve been asked to detect people that regularly receive goods with the same details and then pass them on to other relevant units for further inspection and clarification. Customs officers are required not to process customs procedures for low-value import declarations with unclear information as to who the recipient is.

The Lang Son Customs Department has directed customs branches at border gates to promote supervision for warehouses leased by express delivery enterprises in border-gate areas. The customs branches must strengthen the supervision and inspection of express delivery operators. If the operators do not meet requirements on customs control, the local department will report to the General Department of Vietnam Customs to revoke the warehouse codes of those enterprises. They will closely monitor the express delivery businesses authorized by goods owners to declare customs themselves.