The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has implemented many measures on customs and tax procedures to facilitate trade, improve national competitiveness in the integration process and improve efficiency as well as reduce costs in logistics service for businesses.

Decisive reforms needed for Vietnam to get full EVFTA benefits: WB

High-level Panel Dialogue at Vietnam Logistics Forum 2020

Speaking at a High-level Panel Dialogue within the framework of Vietnam Logistics Forum 2020 on November 26, in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said the Ministry of Finance has not stopped trying to implement reform, modernization and simplification of tax and customs procedures.

The Ministry of Finance has applied information technology to all stages of customs management and tax administration, including electronic customs declaration and electronic tax payment. Nearly 100% of customs declarations as well as nearly 100% of tax payments have been done electronically. This creates a lot of advantages, saving time and costs for businesses.

In 2019 and 2020, the Ministry of Finance has directed the General Department of Customs to implement the automated system for customs supervision and management at seaports and warehouses. Now, more than 400 seaports and warehouses have applied this system, connecting customs authorities and port and warehouse operators, removing the submission of paper documents, reducing contact between enterprises with customs authorities, cutting a third of the time for customs procedure for customs authorities and port and warehouse port operators.

Last September, the Ministry of Finance launched the automated system for customs supervision at Noi Bai International Airport and by 2021 the system will be deployed in other airports.

Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai also emphasized that the acceleration of the implementation of the ASEAN Single Window and official connection with non-ASEAN trading partners in recent years have had a huge positive impact on businesses.

The number of specialized inspection procedures connected to the ASEAN Single Window is growing at a rapid pace. To date, 202 specialized inspection procedures have been connected to the ASEAN Single Window.

There are more than 50 more procedures being connected in the remaining months of 2020 and early 2021. Thanks to these advances, the rate of consignments subject to specialized inspection dropped from 30% in 2015 to about 19% in 2019.

However, the Government and the Ministry of Finance found the rate of 19% was still high and further reform was required to minimize the rate of consignments subject to specialisedinspection. The Government assigned the Ministry of Finance to preside over developing a scheme on specialized inspection reform

"We will develop the scheme with a great ambition to introduce seven major reforms and officially submitted it to the Government in September 2020," Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai said.

The seven major reforms comprise: Assigning the customs agency to be the head agency in quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods; applying synchronously three inspection methods forquality and food safety to reduce the number of imported consignments subject to inspection; simplifying procedures for quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods; applying inspection by goods to reduce the number of shipments subject to inspection; applying the principle of risk management in quality inspection and food safety inspection for imported goods to ensure the role of State management and improve the compliance of businesses; expanding items exempted from quality inspection and food safety inspection, with the expectation to add 19 groups of items to reduce costs for thestate agency and businesses; and applying information technology systems in the new model to cut time, support businesses and relevant agencies.

The scheme will help cut VND 900 billion per year for businesses to directly carry out customs procedures, and in general, it will cut more than VND 9,000 billion for the economy.

"The Ministry of Finance affirms that it will make more efforts for reform and always accompany businesses to support businesses and contribute to the development of the economy," said Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai.