According to a report by Long An Customs Department, recently, import and export activities of enterprises in the area have witnessed many signs of progress after many months of decline due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Enterprises carry our procedures at the Ben Luc
Customs Branch in Long An province.

Many key export products increase

Long An Customs Department said that as of December 15, 2020, 2,050 import-export enterprises registered for procedures at the unit, up 1% year-on-year, with a total of over 460,000 declarations.

Import-export turnover in December reached US$1.54 billion, up 13% from the previous month. Accumulated from the beginning of the year until now, the turnover reached US$14.6 billion, up 6.2% year-on-year, of which export value was US$8.7 billion, up 7% and import value was US$5.8 billion, up 7% over the same period last year.

Some imported items recorded turnover growth such as machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts up 30%; chemicals up 1%; iron and steel up 39%; vegetable oil up 9%; non-ferrous metals up 29%; animal feed and raw materials up 19% and wood up 14% compared to the preceding month.

In particular, the taxable import-export turnover in the month reached US$171 million, up 24% month-on-month.

Although the taxable import-export turnover reached US$1.4 billion, down 3% over the same period in 2019, the turnover of some taxable imported items recorded a high increase such as vegetable oil 13%; coal 50%; animal feed and raw materials 77%; materials for garment and footwear 52%; agricultural products 38%, aquatic products 118%, wood 84%, raw materials for cigarette production 188%, paper 10%; fertilizer 164% and other items 13% over the same period in 2019.

In which, in Long An, import-export turnover reached over US$9.3 billion, up 0.7% over the same period last year, of which export turnover reached more than US$5.5 billion, up 2.7%; import turnover reached nearly US$3.8 billion, or 97.8% over the same period in 2029. In Tien Giang, Ben Tre, the total import-export turnover reached US$5.3 billion, up 17.4% and the taxable turnover increased by 54% over the same period last year.

Make the best efforts

Deputy Director of Long An Customs Department Le Nam Quoc said that in order to achieve the results, according to Mr. Le Nam Quoc, the department made a list of enterprises suffering from difficulties, especially import and export enterprises affected by foreign markets for customs branches to contact and encourage them as well as understand their situation of import and export activities, thereby, developing solutions to support and facilitate the enterprises.

In addition, the department's leaders also actively contacted and held conferences with enterprises and coordinated other agencies in the area to directly understand and grasp difficulties and problems of enterprises, thereby promptly solving problems arising under their competence related to customs procedures, tax policies, tax administration, accounting regime, tax refund and tax exemption.

Along with that, the budget revenue of Long An Customs Department also increased. In November 2020, the department collected VND336.88 billion, up 12% from the previous month. Of which, Long An increased 14% and Ben Tre increased 37% compared to the previous month.

In 2020, although the department must reduce more than 30% of the inspections compared to the same period last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic that greatly affected the import and export activities of enterprises in the area, Long An Customs Department still collected over VND9.4 billion from the post-customs clearance audit, up 14% over the same period in 2019. In particular, regarding specialized inspection activities, although only two enterprises were inspected, the collected revenue reached about VND9 billion, up 359% compared to the desired target.

In addition, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, in parallel with pandemic prevention, Long An Customs Department worked with the competent agencies in the area to strictly control the border line and handle many cases of smuggling, illegal transportation of goods and trade fraud.

In 2020, the unit handled 306 violations of the customs law, with a total fine of nearly VND11.7 billion and imposed tax on 38 cases of nearly VND18 billion.

Although there have been many signs of progress, in general, the budget collection of Long An customs in 2020 still faced many difficulties. As of December 6, 2020, the budget revenue of Long An Customs Department reached over VND3,143 billion, or 78.58% of the assigned target, down nearly 11.6% over the same period last year. It is expected that by the end of December 2020, the department will collect VND3,341 billion, reaching 84% of the assigned target, a year-on-year decrease of 12%.