The Ministry of Finance sent a document responding to the Ministry of Transport about handling difficulties to release goods at Cat Lai port. To solve the situation of imported goods being congested at Cat Lai port, the Ministry of Finance proposed a plan to regulate shipping lines and goods.

Imported goods are congested at Cat Lai port. Source: Internet.

Applying temporary customs procedures

On August 2, the Ministry of Finance directed the General Department of Vietnam Customs to issue Official Letter No. 3847/TCHQ- GSQL directing the Customs authority to work with Saigon Newport Corporation to apply temporary customs procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic period to solve the congestion of goods at Cat Lai port.

Imported goods stored at Cat Lai port will be transported to other seaports in HCM City and inland ports/ICDs in other provinces and cities for storage, with imported goods of enterprises in Dong Nai province transported to Tan Cang Long Binh ICD or Tan Cang Nhon Trach ICD; imported goods of firms in Binh Duong province transported to Tan Cang Song Than ICD and imported goods of businesses in the southwest provinces transported to Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc port.

In addition, backlogged goods that have completed inventory, classification and valuation of backlogged goods will be transported from Cat Lai port and stored at Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc port.

The Customs authority requested Saigon Newport Corporation to notify import-export firms, shipping lines/shipping agents about the congestion at Cat Lai port so they could have a plan to unload their goods and store goods at Cai Mep port, and at the same time, adjust the destination port from Cat Lai port to Cai Mep port to carry out import customs procedures.

Customs also suggested Saigon Newport Corporation send documents to specialised inspection units at seaports for speeding up the inspection progress and return specialised inspection results to reduce cargo clearance time and release the goods from the port soon.

Administrative procedures through the National Single Window

The Ministry of Finance also said that for customs procedures on the National Single Window Portal, administrative procedures for export, import and transit goods; means of transport on exit, entry and transit under the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window; specialised inspection for export, import and transit goods; management, operation, exchange and sharing of data through the National Single Window Portal will all comply with the provisions of Decree 85/2019/ND-CP.

The Ministry of Finance has worked with ministries and sectors to promote the implementation of administrative procedures through the National Single Window. As of June, the National Single Window had 226 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and sectors connected, with more than 3.93 million dossier sets of more than 48,000 enterprises and is creating favourable conditions for businesses in carrying out procedures for import and export goods with the function of receiving electronic documents, declaration information and related information, verifying the digital signatures of declarants and competent authorities; transfer electronic documents, declaration information and information of the declarant to the specialised processing system, and store information from the declarant on the National Single Window for searching, statistic; receive processing results and notifications from processing systems; sending feedback of processing results to the declarant and the relevant specialised processing system.

“Thus, during the current Covid-19 pandemic period, the National Single Window Portal supported businesses to carry out procedures to limit direct contact between businesses and State authorities," the Ministry of Finance said.

Regulating shipping lines/agents, goods transported to Cat Lai port

For customs dossiers, the Ministry of Finance said when making customs declaration, the declarant must fully declare information on customs declaration specified in form No. 01 or form No. 02, Appendix I issued together with Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC and send documents attached in the customs dossier as prescribed in Article 2 of Decree 16, Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC amended and supplemented in Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance to the Customs authority through the electronic customs data processing system.

Documents in customs dossiers; additional declaration dossiers; dossiers of pre-determination of code, origin and customs valuation; announcement of the list of duty-free goods; reports on use of duty-free goods; tax exemption, tax reduction, tax refund and non-collection dossiers; application file for the handling of overpaid tax, late payment interest and fines; application for tax payment extension; application for certifying the fulfillment of tax payment obligations; dossiers of application for tax arrears, late payment interest and fines must be submitted to the customs authority through the e-customs data system.

Documents in customs dossiers can be electronic data or paper documents converted to electronic documents (scans certified with digital signatures). If the original documents must be submitted in paper form, the originals must be submitted in person or sent by post to the customs office.

Thus, legal regulations have fully provided for the submission of electronic documents (scanned copies) to the Customs authority when carrying out procedures. If the documents are issued on the National Single Window Portal, the customs authority will base on the documents on the National Single Window Portal to process procedures for businesses and not require the presentation of paper documents.

If the original documents must be submitted in paper form, the customs declarant may choose to send them by post to the customs office to handle the customs procedures.

For the submission of certificates of origin of goods during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 47/2020/TT-BTC dated May 27, 2020 to guide implementation.

For cases where the original C/O must be submitted to the customs authority, if the original is not available at the time of processing customs procedures, the declarant may submit a photocopy or scanned copy of the C/O to the customs authority and take responsibility before the law for the accuracy and validity of the copy or scanned copy of the C/O.

The Customs authority will base on the photocopy/scanned copy of the C/O, customs dossiers, actual goods, shipment itinerary and other information to determine the origin of goods and decide on clearance. The customs declarant is responsible for returning one original C/O within 180 days from the date of registration of the import customs declaration.

The Ministry of Finance proposed the Ministry of Transport direct the Vietnam Maritime Administration to direct the Maritime Administration to have a plan to regulate shipping lines/shipping agents and goods transported to Cat Lai port and other seaports in Vietnam appropriately to solve the congestion of goods at Cat Lai port.