Minimising inspection to facilitate businesses, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring the capture, analysis and evaluation of information to inspect suspicious cases in a highly effective manner are remarkable improvement of the Post Clearance Audit Department.

Chart by: T.B

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, from the beginning of the year to October 15, the Customs sector conducted 1,161 post-clearance audits. Of which, 346 audits were implemented at customs declarant’s premises and 815 were implemented at Customs’ head offices. The total amount of tax assessment and administrative fine was VND 931.34 billion, revenue contributed to the State budget was VND 870.71 billion.

Regarding the management of authorised economic operator (AEO), the department has completed the information collection to develop an enterprise profile according to specific criteria. So far, the total number of operators that arerecognised and applied as authorised economic operator is 70 operators.

The Post-Clearance Audit Department collected more than VND 492 billion, accounting for 56.5% of total revenue of the entire post-clearance audit force.

Notably, the number of audits conducted by the Post Clearance Audit decreased by 115 compared to the same period in 2019, but the revenue increasedby more than VND 100 billion.

Thus, the department collected on average VND 5.7 billion per post clearance audit, upthreefold year-on-year (in the same period of 2019, on average, it was VND 1.9 billion per audit).

To achieve positive improvement and results, Post-Clearance Audit has focused on implementing synchronously and drastically related work such as implementing the scheme on “Upgrading STQ01 system” through piloting and amending the functions of STQ02 system. It has continued to apply thinking and investigativemethods in the post clearance audit; reviewed unified implementation of the competency to sign decision on post-clearance audit, handling audit results and complaints, methods of conducting post-clearance audit across the country andcompleted a draft on the revised audit process.

Decision No.335/QD-KTSTQ dated August 7 on the development of orientation plan, detailed plan and implementation in post-clearance audit sets the goal that post-clearance audit is conducted according to plan and in a targeted manner, avoiding rampant and ineffective audit; developing one-year plan and orientation of post clearance audit according to the customs’ sector requirements in each period or controlling high risks of law violation in each period.

At the same time, the Post-clearance Audit Department has completed the development of a training programme for its new customs officers; continued to develop documents guiding the handling of violations and complaint settlement; developed specialised orientation plan for imported scrap to deploy training for officers in the entire post-clearance audit force.

In addition, the Post-clearance Audit Department has performed its leading role in combating origin fraud. Through audit results, the department has discovered and handled dozens of violations andcollected tens of VND billions.

More importantly, effective fighting against violations on origin, illicit transshipment not only prevents revenue loss but also contributes to protecting the reputation andbrand of Vietnamese goods, protecting and developing domestic production; increasing the attraction of foreign direct investment; ensuring the implementation of Vietnam's commitments in free trade deals. At the same time, raising awareness and law observance of the import and export business community to prevent violations; the business community is warned about risks of violations to avoidand ensure compliance with Vietnamese regulations through the fact that after detecting violations, enterprises have invested sufficiently systems of machines and equipment for production to meet Vietnamese origin criteria.

The results of post clearance audit show that the post clearance audit force has implemented the policy of minimising inspection to remove difficulties and facilitate the business community, especially amid the complexCovid-19 pandemic period, ensuring State management on customs area, and increasingly asserted its role as one of the important tools of modern customs management.