Officers of Hipe Phuoc Customs Branch- HCM City Customs Department at work. Photo: T. H

HCM City Customs Department cites Clause 9a, Article 13 of Circular 12/2015/TT-BTC dated January 30, 2015, amended and supplemented by Clause 9, Article 1 of Circular 22/2019/TT-BTC dated April 16, 2019 of the Ministry of Finance, as saying that periodically (on the 5th date of the first month of a quarter) the Customs broker makes reports on the operations using the form No. 10 enclosed herewith and send them to the Customs Departments of provinces and cities.

Clause 2, Article 7 of Circular 12/2015/TT-BTC dated January 30, 2015, amended and supplemented by Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular 22/2019/TT-BTC dated April 16, 2019 of the Ministry of Finance, stipulates that the customs broker will be suspended its operation when it fails to comply with the regulations on report to the customs authority for 03 constant times according to the regulations on Article 13 of this Circular.

Through reviewing the activities of Customs brokers in the area, HCM City Customs Department discovered that nine customs brokers failed to submit their reports in accordance with regulations for three consecutive periods.

The list of Customs brokers violating regulations on report has been reported by HCM city Customs Department to the General Department of Customs for consideration and handling in accordance with regulations.

These Customs brokers may be suspended from their operation by the Customs.

According to HCM City Customs Department, the department has managed about 300 customs brokers. These Customs brokers are recognized by the General Department of Vietnam Customs for eligible for operation as customs brokers.

HCM City Customs Department said that most of customs brokers have strictly complied with customs regulations, make periodic report in line with regulations and cooperate well with the Customs.

In fact, the activities of customs brokers have not developed as expected, many customs brokers still violate the reporting regime. Over the past time, the number of violated customs brokers has increased to about a hundred customs brokers.

Through warning information from the Customs, the late submission of report by customs brokers has improved, the number of violations has decreased significantly.

According to the Customs Control and Supervision Division, in the past, after being listed as violators, some customs brokers sent official dispatches to HCM City Customs Department to explain and provided unreasonable reasons. The Customs also detected some cases that made false documents for reporting.

Notably, P. Co., Ltd. explained that the company had sent the report via an express delivery unit, but the express delivery unit had lost it, causing the report to the Customs to be delayed, and the company had attached documents for verification.

Through checking on the electronic information portal of the express delivery unit provided by P. Co., Ltd., the Department found that the explanation of the company was inconsistent with the reality. There were signs of falsification and revision of documents provided to the Customs, so the Customs continues to identify and investigate.

HCM City Customs Department said that with the goal of building a unified and synchronous legal environment to facilitate the development of customs brokerage services, and reviewing and amending some contents in line with the reality, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 22/2019/TT-BTC amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 12/2015/TT-BTC on April 16, 2019.

One of the important contents in Circular 22 is to supplement the rights and responsibilities of the cargo owner. Accordingly, Article 14 stipulates that “When an agency contract is signed, the owner of the goods will notify the list of customs brokers authorized to declare and carry out customs procedures for export and import goods through the electronic customs data processing system before the customs broker implements the declaration and carries out customs procedures for export and import goods.”

Circular 22 provides regulations on the responsibilities of the customs broker to sign an agency contract with the owner of the goods. The person who is granted a customs brokerage staff code will declare and carry out customs procedures based on agency contract signed with the owner of the goods.