The Government Decree 08/2015 on customs procedures, inspection and supervision has been amended and supplemented to perfect the customs legal system. Deputy Director of Customs Control and Supervision Department Dao Duy Tam spoke to Customs News about this issue.

Deputy Director of Customs Control and Supervision Department Dao Duy Tam.

Could you tell us about the need to amend and supplement Decree 08?

Over six years of implementation, Decree 08 has promoted the reform of administrative procedures, creating a favorable environment for investment and import-export activities of enterprises, improving efficiency of the customs authority’s performance and ensuring state management in customs.

However, there are still some shortcomings in implementing the decree, such as requirements on customs declaration and dossier submission, risk management in customs, post-clearance audit, authorized economic operator program, customs inspection and customs valuation, and regulations related to the National Single Window and specialized inspection.

In addition, the National Assembly and Government issued legal documents related to the customs area, including the Law on Tax Administration and the Government Decree 18/2021. Vietnam has signed more new-generation Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which has confirmed Vietnam's commitment to integration into trade activities with other countries. Thereby, it requires perfecting the legal basis to be more transparent, convenient and in line with international practices.

On January 26, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 97 approving the policy of hiring IT services to implement digital Customs and towards building a smart Customs model, making Vietnam Customs a modern customs authority, meeting trends and international standards, and applying achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Vietnam strives to be on par with developed countries by 2025, meeting the requirements of smart governance, enterprise management, connecting and sharing information with ministries and branches; strictly control import and export activities.

The Government has issued resolutions on continuing to perform key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness, aiming at putting Vietnam in the top four ASEAN states, and reducing customs clearance time to 36 hours for export goods and 41 hours for import goods.

Therefore, the Government has asked the Ministry of Finance to submit the revised Decree 08/2015 to meet requirements in the new situation.

What are the new contents of the draft to reform administrative procedures and create favorable conditions for customs declarants?

The decree stipulates the IT application in customs operation to ensure modernization and automation in customs process. It also helps to facilitate customs declarants and meet management requirements.

It also develops a legal framework to ensure customs control for export processing and production in accordance with the orientation, which is IT application and based on the smart customs model.

All procedures related to export processing and production will be carried out electronically.

The supervision for this operation will be connected and performed via the Customs IT system.

The decree revises procedures for goods to reduce costs and accelerate customs clearance for business.

The decree provides the expansion of customs checkpoints for goods temporarily imported for re-export to serve competitions, cultural events, and application of automated customs supervision at border gates, railways, and inland waterways; revises regulations on authorized economic operator program, giving priority for small and medium enterprises.

In addition, the Decree also adds a number of articles to ensure transparency and concretize administrative procedures during implementation.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs sets a goal of developing a smart customs model. What are the provisions of the draft decree to achieve this goal?

The draft decree stipulates all administrative procedures in customs will be carried out automatically and electronically via the customs IT system toward applying the smart customs model.

The customs system continues to automatically return the results of goods classification on the VNACCS system.

Automatically connect information with the Customs and export processing and production enterprises for customs management and facilitation to enterprises in monitoring the import and use of raw materials, supplies, machinery and equipment.

Customs procedures for means of transport on exit and entry will be carried out on the National Single Window.

The decree also continues to amend in the direction of applying IT in connecting images of machines and equipment such as scanners, surveillance cameras, positioning seals, and equipment for physical inspection of goods.

The decree will specify contents on the development of smart customs model and application of Industrial Revolution 4.0.