/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • • / 0 Comments

THE REGULATION ON PERSONAL EFFECTS AS ALCOHOL AND CIGARS AMENDED

VCN – The General Department of Vietnam Customs is gathering comments from people about the draft Circular amending Circular 120/2015/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance regulating on forms, printing, issuing, and management and use of Customs declarations for people on exit or entry. The revised contents are expected to tighten the carrying for items such as alcohol and cigars.

the regulation on personal effects as alcohol and cigars amended
Illustrated photo

Particularly, passengers on entry or exit must declare the Customs declarations if they carry taxable goods: carrying over 1.5 liters of alcohol of ≥20% ABV (alcohol by volume), or over 2 liters of alcohol of < 20% ABV; or over 3liters of alcoholic drinks and beer; over 200 cigarettes; over 20 cigars or over 250 grams of shredded tobacco; and other items with value of over 10 million VND.

Thus, in comparison with current regulations, the Customs declaration for some items is expected to be further tightened. Especially for cigars, the passengers on exit or entry carrying 20 cigars must declare on the Customs declaration instead of 100 cigars as described in the current regulations.

If carrying over 1.5 liters of alcohol of ≥20% ABV or 2 liters of alcohol of <20% ABV, the passengers must declare on the Customs declaration instead of over 1.5 liters of alcohol of ≥22% ABV or 2 liters of alcohol of < 22% ABV as described in the current regulations. In addition, the over 250 grams of shredded tobacco must also be declared instead of 500 grams as per the current regulations.

The regulations on the Customs declaration in the draft Circular are in accordance with the provisions of the Government’s Decree No.134/2016/ND-CP guiding the Law on Export and Import duty. In particular, the regulation on Import duty exemption for each entry according to norms: 1.5 liters of alcohol of ≥20% ABV or 2.0 liters of alcohol of <20% ABV or 3.0 liters of other alcoholic drinks or beer; 200 cigarettes or 250 gram of shredded tobacco or 20 cigars; other items other than those mentioned above (not in the List of goods banned from import, suspended from import or subject to conditional import) with total Customs value in not excess of 10 million VND.

By Ngoc Linh/Ngoc Loan

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • / 0 Comments

IT COSTS NEARLY 600 BILLION VND PER DAY TO IMPORT STEEL

VCN- From the beginning of 2017 to now, Vietnam spent nearly $US 26.3 million (about 578 billion vnd) importing steel.

it costs nearly 600 billion vnd per day to import steel
Vietnam spent nearly $US 26.3 million (about 578 billion vnd) importing steel.

According to the latest information of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, from the beginning of 2017 to 15th March 2017, Vietnam spent $US 1.945 billion importing 3.516 million tons of iron and steel, equivalent to $US 26.3 million per day.

Notably, although imports of iron and steel decreased compared to the same period in 2016, the total value of imports increased sharply. Specifically, in the same period last year, Vietnam imported 3.687 million tons of iron and steel with the total value of $US 1.339 billion. Thus, the total import value of iron and steel increased by 45% over the same period of 2016, while the output decreased by nearly 5%.

A strong increase in value and a decrease in output led to an increase in the average price of imported steel. In particular, the average price of steel in 2016 was $US 363 per ton, while at the beginning of 2017, the average price of steel jumped into $US 553 per ton, an increase of more than 52%.

The steel import markets of Vietnam come from many countries and territories in the world but the largest import markets mainly come from Asia such as China with 1.534 million tons of steel, equivalent to the total value of $US 786 million (updated by the General Department of Vietnam Customs at the end of February 2017); Japan with 353,449 tons of steel, worth $US 206 million; Korea with 308,768 tons of steel, worth $US 204 million; Taiwan with 225,355 tons of steel, worth $US 120 million; and India with 211,723 tons of steel, worth $US 110 million.

By Thai Binh/ Hoang Anh

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • / 0 Comments

ORIGIN OF IMPORTED CBU CARS STRICTLY INSPECTED

VCN – This was requested by the General Department of Customs to provincial and municipal Customs departments to enhance the inspection of origin for imported CBU cars (Completely Build Unit/Complete Built Up) upon the application of special preferential duty rate. 

origin of imported cbu cars strictly inspected

Cai Lan Customs sub-department officers inspecting imported CBU cars. Photo: Thu Trang

Specifically, the General Department of Customs requested local Customs departments to implement strictly all provisions on Customs procedures, inspection, supervision, import and export duty and tax management for imported goods, and take notice of inspecting the eligibility of ASEAN origin for imported CBU cars during the implementation of Customs procedures for enjoying the special preferential duty rate.

Also, requesting the units to strictly follow provisions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade guiding the C/O subject to special preferential duty rate and process for verifying and examining origin promulgated by Decision No. 4286/QD/TCHQ dated December 31st, 2015, of the General Department and guiding documents of the Ministry of Finance. Accordingly, in case of suspicion for the eligibility of C/O, declared information of C/O or actual origin of imported goods (Such as signs of forgery of signatures, C / O seals, disconformity between information on goods declared on C / O with documents in the Customs dossier, or doubts about declared origin criteria on C / O or through the actual inspection finding that the origin of goods is different from declared origin, or regulations on direct transportation), the provincial and municipal Customs departments must send reports and related dossiers to the General Department of Customs for verification

While waiting for verification result, the imported goods are not subject to the special preferential duty rate but subject to the MFN preferential duty rate.

Besides, the General Department of Customs also requested the provincial and municipal Customs Department to review C/O of imported CBU car shipments which enjoyed the special preferential duty rate from January 01, 2017 till now. If there are any violations, the Departments must conduct post Customs clearance audit and then report the results to the General Department of Customs.

By Thu Trang/ Huyen Trang

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • / 0 Comments

YAMATO CONSIDERS WITHDRAWING FROM AMAZON’S SAME-DAY DELIVERY SERVICE

TOKYO —

Yamato Transport Co, Japan’s leading door-to-door courier firm, is considering withdrawing from its same-day delivery service for Amazon.com Inc to reduce its drivers’ heavy workloads, sources close to the matter said Friday.

A deliverer of Yamato Transport Co is seen under the company’s logo in Tokyo.Reuters photo

Online retail giant Amazon offers the service to customers who pay a 3,900 yen annual fee, with parcels delivered through Yamato on the day orders are placed. But the service has led to Yamato drivers increasingly being overworked, with a particularly high volume of nighttime deliveries.

Yamato will gradually reduce accepting parcels for the service and eventually withdraw from the service completely, a move that could force online retail firms to review their overall services, the sources said.

Last month, the group firm of Yamato Holdings Co said it will review contracts with major corporate clients, including online retailers, in its effort to reduce the amount of parcels it handles.

The company had been considering partly terminating contracts with major clients that refused to accept raised shipping fees or by deferring delivery days during peak periods.

Yamato plans to raise its base shipping fees by the end of September for the first time in 27 years to maintain service quality amid insufficient manpower and an increase in online shopping, while struggling with growing costs for outsourcing a part of its deliveries.

With 90% of its parcels coming from corporate clients including online retailers, Yamato had been offering them discounts based on delivery volume. But Yamato has already begun talks with major clients, including Amazon’s Japan unit, over the envisioned fee increase.

According to Yamato, the company delivered roughly 1.8 billion parcels in fiscal 2016 amid an increase in online shopping.

But the number is likely to be reduced with Yamato pulling out of the same-day service and Japan Post Co, the mail service unit of the state-owned Japan Post Holdings Co, is seen as overtaking part of the service.

© KYODO

Source: https://www.japantoday.com

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • • / 0 Comments

A SH MOTORBIKE SMUGGLED IN A CONTAINER IN TRANSIT

VCN –  on the morning of April 5, 2017, the Cai Mep port border gate Customs Sub-Department collaborated with Customs Control Team under the Ba Ria – Vung Tau Customs Department to conduct an actual inspection for a container in transit and discovered many smuggled and banned items including 01 used Honda SH 150i motorbike. 

xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh

The SH150i motorbike was hidden in the center of container and surrounded by other commodities such as beer, milk, acoustic audio speakers and supplementary food

Earlier, on April 3, 2017, Madame Anime Inc Co., Ltd submitted to the sub-Department a dossier of goods in transit and Customs declaration on 100% new consumer goods, which will be exported through the Hoa Lu international border gate, Binh Phuoc province

Through examining dossier and checking with commodities declared on the E-manifest and collecting information, the Customs officers discovered that the commodities declared were unclear and insufficient; and the items on the Customs declaration were missing such as: name of the ship, date of arrival, container number, seal number and carrier. It was suspected that there was fraud in commodities, the Customs officers asked for a physical inspection

On the morning of April 5, 2017, the Cai Mep port border gate Customs Sub-Department collaborated with the Customs Control Team to inspect and detect that there were a lot of used goods such as: acoustic audio speakers, amplifiers, music disc, beverage, beer and milk. Especially, there was 01 Honda SH 150i hidden in the center of the container.

The Cai Mep port border gate Customs Sub-Department has still unloaded the commodities to inspect and handle.

xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
An old disc player almost discarded
xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
Old amplifiers
xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
Foreign beer
xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
Supplementary food
xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
Old music discs
xe sh nhap lau trong container hang qua canh
The SH 150i unloaded

By Dang Nguyen/ Huyen Trang

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • / 0 Comments

ENTERPRISES COMPLAIN ABOUT SPECIALIZED INSPECTIONS

VCN- At a meeting with the delegation of the HCM City Customs Department in March 2017, most enterprises reflected difficulties and obstacles in specialized inspections for imported goods, which affected the opportunities of enterprises.

doanh nghiep tiep tuc phan nan ve kiem tra chuyen nganh
Customs officers of Tan Son Nhat International Airport check imported pharmaceutical products. Photo: T.H.

“Obstacles” in specialized inspections

Mad. Le Thi Van, the Director General of Dai Tan Viet Joint Stock Company said that her company had been one of the leading importers and distributors of food ingredients in Vietnam for 20 years. The company has a huge volume of imports, with high quality, but it takes the company a lot of time and money to carry out specialized inspections in Vietnam. “The products of the company are mainly cheese, milk, foie gras, etc. imported from European countries, strictly controlled in the process of farming, distribution and certification. However, when these producted are imported into Vietnam, they must be quarantined before clearance. In fact, Customs clearance is very fast, but it takes the company about 6 to 7 hours to take the goods, due to the waiting time for receipt of goods, samples, shipping papers, etc. The delay in one of these stepss can extend the time and increase costs”, Mad. Van shared.

As a result, the General Director of Dai Tan Viet Joint Stock Company recommended that the authorities should accept the certificates of developed countries. In the case where the authorities detect violations, enterprises shall be strictly punished.

Exchanging with the delegation of the HCM City Customs Department, Mad. Pham Xuan Thu, the Supply Chain Manager of Saigon Paper Joint Stock Company said that the biggest difficulty of enterprises in import and export activities was not Customs procedures but specialized inspections. Accordingly, the company imports raw materials to produce paper products in the domestic market and export with the amount of about 100-120 containers per month. However, imported paper materials have the same HS code with scraps, so they are classified into the Red Channel, subject to physical inspections. Accordingly, before opening Customs declaration, the company must send the dossier to the specialized inspection agency and wait 2-3 days, or even up to 1 week for response of the authorities. “For an imported shipment, the company must pay VAT of 10% to the State budget, but it takes the company up to 20% of revenues for specialized inspections. Then, the profit is only 2-3%”, Mad. Thu explained.

Regarding pharmaceutical area, Mad. Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong, the Deputy Director General of Central Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company No. 2 said that the company’s export and import volume was very huge. If the company does not reform procedures to reduce the time of certification of specialized inspections, it will negatively affect the time of Customs clearance and costs of enterprises.

The Customs will provide maximum support

Regarding difficulties of enterprises, at the meeting, the leader of the HCM City Customs Department said that as the leading agency in the implementation of the project on reform of specialized inspection procedures, the HCM City Customs Department had many solutions to support enterprises. In particular, it has submitted many proposals to the Government and the National Assembly to solve many inadequacies related to the implementation of specialized inspections at border gates of HCM City.

The leader of the HCM Customs Department suggested that enterprises should continue to have specific reports on each imported items subject to specialized inspections which face obstacles. Accordingly, these obstacles shall be resolved based on the legal documents of Ministries, proposals of enterprises and Customs agencies.

In order to facilitate enterprises in specialized inspections, the HCM City Customs Department has coordinated with specialized inspection agencies to put two specialized inspection stations at Lai port and Tan Son Nhat International Airport with the participation of many relevant forces. In addition, the HCM City Customs Department has also put the portal on specialized inspections into operation with the participation of four parties, including: Customs, specialized inspection agencies, port business enterprises and import-export enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should take advantage of these supports as soon as possible. Agreeing with the recommendations of enterprises in the field of specialized inspections, the leader of the HCM City Customs Department said that the Customs force had been also proposing to accpet mutual results among developed countries; apply risk management for enterprises and apply probability method for each shipment.

In order to facilitate enterprises in specialized inspections, Mr. Tran Ngoc Anh, the Deputy Manager of the Customs Branch of Tan Son Nhat International Airport said that currently, for consignments to be refrigerated, Customs officers shall conduct physical inspections at the warehouse, so enterprises do not need to transport goods into specialized inspections stations, which saves time and costs for businesses. Thus, quarantine agencies should have similar regulations to create favourable conditions for enterprises. At the warehouses of Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Customs officers and staff of specialized agencies shall carry out sampling at the warehouse without transporting goods to specilized inspection stations as before.

By Le Thu/ Hoang Anh

Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • / 0 Comments

REGULATIONS ON SENDING MONEY OVERSEAS

VCN – The Customsnews received a question from a reader on sending AUD 100.000 from his/her parents to him/her to buy a house in Australia; to receive the money, whether he/she must return to Vietnam to take the money or his/her parents can register the money transfer service at a bank to send that money to Australia?

regulations on sending money overseas

Customers on exit implementing procedures at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport

Relating to the question from a reader, through talking with authorized units, the Legal Consultancy Team of the Customs news consulted as below:

According to Article 2 of Circular No. 15/2011/TT-NHNN dated August 02, 2011, Individuals when entering into and exiting from the country with passport through international border gates of Vietnam carrying foreign currency or Vietnamese dong in cash in excess of the following amount shall be required to declare to the border Customs:

a. USD 5,000 (Five thousand United States dollars) or other foreign currencies of the same value;

b. VND 15,000,000 (Fifteen million Vietnamese Dong).

In the case where an individual entering into Vietnam carries foreign currency in cash in an amount or USD 5.000 or lower or other foreign currencies of the same value and have demand for depositing the amount to their foreign currency payment account opened at a credit institution or a foreign bank’s branch authorized to engage in foreign exchange, he shall be required to declare to the border Customs.

Entry-exit declarations with confirmation of the border Customs about the carried amount of foreign currency in cash is a basis for the authorized credit institution to accept the deposit in foreign currency in cash deposited to the payment account.

The amount of foreign currency and Vietnamese dong in cash required to be declared at the border gate Customs is not applied for individuals who carry means of payment, valuable papers in foreign currency or in Vietnamese dong such as traveler’s cheques, bank card, savings book, securities and other valuable papers.

Pursuant to the Clause 1, Article 1 of the Circular governing the scope and subjects of application: “This Circular provides for the carrying of foreign currency or Vietnamese dong in cash (including paper money, coin) of individuals upon entry, exit through international border gates of Vietnam with passport or other documents of the same value as passport that are issued by a competent agency of Vietnam or foreign country (hereinafter collectively referred to as passport). Therefore, individuals on exit carry foreign currency in the amount mentioned above (this amount specified for each passport/ a person and not discriminated by age) is not required to declare on the entry declarations when carrying out the entry procedures. Only declaring to the Customs agencies if carrying an amount of foreign currency in excess of described amount on the entry-exit declarations when implementing the exit procedures.

If the reader directly flies to Vietnam to take the money, he/she must strictly follow the above regulations on carrying foreign currency in cash.
If the reader wants to register the money transfer service to Australia via banks, he/she should instruct his/her parents to directly contact with a bank with Western Union service for detailed guidance.

By The Legal Consultancy Team of Customsnews/ HuyenTrang
Source: http://customsnews.vn/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • / 0 Comments

CONNECTING FLIGHTS HOLD THE KEY TO LOW-COST LONG-HAUL SUCCESS

IT IS a peculiarity of the airline business that a connecting flight is often cheaper than a shorter nonstop route to the same destination. Normally, paying less to receive more is economically preposterous. But in transportation, where the fastest conveyance from A to B is the main utility, it makes perfect sense. For passengers, sitting on a plane any longer than necessary can be an exasperating, even painful experience. For airlines, flying empty seats is no less harmful. This inverse relationship between a journey’s value and its cost is something that Europe’s new breed of long-haul budget carriers may be overlooking.

 

As Gulliver reported in March, International Airlines Group (IAG), the holding company of several airlines including British Airways, is the latest pretender in the low-cost long-haul market. Its new venture, Level, has begun offering rock-bottom airfares from Barcelona to the West Coast of America, the Dominican Republic and Argentina. Routes from other European cities are expected shortly. In Germany, Lufthansa already deploys its low-cost carrier, Eurowings to the Americas, Thailand and Mauritius. Air France is to launch its own offshoot, Boost, this autumn. All three flag-carriers have been spurred to action by Norwegian Air Shuttle, the budget long-haul pioneer that began widebody flights in 2013 and, in many people’s eyes, has proven a business model once thought unviable.

Amid talk of a low-cost long-haul revolution, lessons from Asia’s older, more experienced budget carriers are being ignored. AirAsia X, the long-haul division of Malaysia’s AirAsia, launched widebody flights a decade ago. Cebu Pacific Air in the Philippines, Jetstar Airways in Australia and Scoot in Singapore were also low-cost long-haul trailblazers. Yet none of them spreads their wings beyond Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. (The only one with imminent plans to fly to Europe, Scoot, is restricting itself to Athens, on the south-eastern periphery of the continent.) “Our sweet spot is about seven hours,” says Benyamin Ismail, chief executive of AirAsia X, “because you can do more flights and you can earn more revenues. Once you start flying for 12, 14 hours, you lose that ability.” His airline trialled flights to London and Paris a few years ago, but could not keep fares low when fuel prices rose. Both routes were axed.

With Brent Crude now hovering around $50, less than half its recent peak, Gulliver wonders if cheap oil is again clouding the industry’s judgement. The four-engine Airbus A340s that AirAsia X briefly flew to Europe were, admittedly, gas-guzzlers. But the A330-200s that Eurowings and Level have selected are hardly revolutionary machines. Should oil prices tick up again, the lengthy flights they operate to Asia and deep into America will become pricey. And there will be no large premium cabin to subsidise economy-class passengers on these planes. Norwegian and Scoot, meanwhile, may be cushioned by the fuel efficiency of their next-generation Boeing 787s, but such cutting-edge technology does not come cheap. What they save in fuel expenses they will inevitably spend on leases.

The solution, says Mr Ismail, is to break up the journey. AirAsia X’s planes already stop in the Gold Coast on their way to Auckland. When its Hawaii flights begin this summer, they will take a detour via Osaka in Japan. These layovers boost the economics of long-haul flights by adding new points for traffic to feed and de-feed. And the model is highly scalable. By selecting centrally located intermediary hubs, airlines can shuffle passengers between an array of short- and long-haul routes. More liquid traffic-flows means fuller planes and lower fares. Small wonder that AirAsia X has long-term plans for bases in Japan and either India or the Middle East. “India can connect you to Europe. Japan can take you to Russia and also to the US,” Mr Ismail says. “If you have that connectivity it will be great. But we’re still far from it.”

Elsewhere, low-cost hubs are already taking root. Iceland’s fast-expanding WOW Air will connect 19 European points with ten in North America this summer. The budget carrier’s Atlantic base is within six hours flying time of the United States. To the east, Kazakhstan’s Air Astana styles itself as the first “low-cost long-haul full-service” carrier. Its location halfway between Europe and North Asia, coupled with a weak currency, makes Astana a convenient and affordable hub for stopovers. If passengers and airlines continue to see mutual benefits in cheap connecting flights, the likes of Level and Eurowings might struggle to make their name.

Source: http://www.economist.com/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • • / 0 Comments

ZIM NAMES GLICKMAN CEO

Zim Integrated Shipping Services also announced the departure of its chief financial officer.

Zim Integrated Shipping Service’s board of directors named Eli Glickman as president and CEO to replace Rafi Danieli, who announced last year he was stepping down.

Glickman will assume leadership of Zim on July 1. Zim also announced that CFO Guy Eldar, who led the complicated restructuring of the company’s debts in 2014, would also step down. No replacement for Eldar was named.

Glickman was previously CEO of the Israel Electric Company and worked in logistics from 2003 to 2005 as CEO of Exel MPL. He has also served as deputy CEO at Partner-Orange Cellular Communication where he managed the customer division and comes from a military background, having been a commanding officer in the special operations unit of the Israeli navy.

He has also been a missile ship commander and naval attache in Washington, DC.

Glickman has a masters of science in financial management from University of Monterey (California) and has graduated from Georgetown University’s International Executive Business Administration program.

Danieli has led Zim for the past 8 years and worked previously as CFO and deputy CEO. Zim said Danieli led a successful operational reorganization that has had tangible benefits.

Zim operates around 80 vessels with a total capacity of 344,460 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), according to the company’s website.

Zim posted a net profit of $4.6 million in the fourth quarter, down from $43.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2015. For the full year, Zim posted a loss of $163.5 million compared with a profit of $6.5 million in 2015.

In preparation for the new vessel-sharing agreements that launch April 1, the Haifa-based carrier has been restructuring its network, unveiling new trans-Pacific services connecting Asia with the Pacific Northwest.

The company also is rolling out its Zim Med Pacific service using 15 vessels with capacities of 4,500 TEUs as well as a new service to the Mediterranean from India.

Dustin Braden, Assistant Web Editor, JOC.com
Source: http://www.joc.com/

/ By Vietrans Admin / General • News/ • / 0 Comments

CUSTOMS ISSUED AN ACTION PLAN TO IMPLEMENT RESOLUTION 19/2017

VCN – The General Department of Customs has just issued Decision No. 737/QD-TCHQ promulgating an Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 19-2017/NQ-CP dated 06/6/2017 of the Government on the main tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness in 2017, orientation to 2020.

customs issued an action plan to implement resolution 192017

Huu Nghi Customs officers (Lang Son Customs) guide enterprises Customs procedures. Photo: H.Nu

According to the plan, Customs shall comprehensively carry out the solutions of administration reform, focusing on: Continuing to support and remove difficulties for production and business; Enhancing Customs administrative procedures, shortening processingtime, modernizing and applying information technology in State management; Reducing time to implement administrative procedures, ensuring publicity, transparency and enhancing the responsibility of Customs offices; andcomprehensively reforming regulations on specialized management for imported and exported goods and services in line with international practices.

In particular, the first target is shortening the clearance timefor goods across borders to 70 hours for exports and 90 hours for imports; and improving the rank on cross-border trade implementation time assessed by the World Bank from No. 93 to below No. 82.

At the same time, minimizing papers, shortening the time and reducing the cost of administrative procedure implementation in import-export. Primarily changing the mode of management and specialized inspection on the basis of risk management principles andwide application of international practices; and Computerizing management procedures and specialized inspection; Connecting and sharing information between management and specialized inspection agencies and organizations and Customs agencies.Continuing to complete Customs institutions and laws to create maximum favorable conditions for Customs declarants and taxpayers.

The General Department of Customs emphasized the target by 2020, Customs clearance time for goods across borderswill be less than 60 hours for exported goods and 80 hours for imported goods.

The plan clarifies the tasks of perfecting the Customs law system. Further studying, formulating and submitting to competent authorities and promulgating according to their competence the documents amending and supplementing the document system detailing the Law on import and export duties and Customs Law 2014. Formulating legal normative documents to implement theASEAN Single Window and the National Single Window. Improving the efficiency of specialized inspection for imported and exported goods.

In which, proactively collaborating with ministries and branches to amend legal normative documents relating to Customs specialized management.Particularly, actively coordinating with ministries and branches to speed up the revision of the system of legal normative documents on specialized inspectionin accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 2026/QD-TTg of November 17, 2015 on approving the project “Solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of specialized inspections for imported and exported goods”. Developing and promulgating a completed list of goods subject to specialized inspectionin the direction of narrowing subjects of specialized inspection and detailing the HS codes; and promulgating national standards and technical regulations for goods subject to specialized inspectionas basis for goods quality inspection.

Also promoting and encouragingorganizations which assess the conformity to join the implementation of the specialized inspection for imported and exported goods in the direction of socialization to add inspection facilities to meet the requirements of strong development of import and export activities, and save State investment resources. Renovating the method of specialized inspections in the direction of creating favorable conditions for import and export activities, reducing costs and shortening goods clearance time.Extending the implementation of specialized inspections with centralized checkpoints at the border gates.

Besides, completion of the National Single Window and ASEAN Single Window: to organize the implementation of the master plan ondeployment of Single Window for 2016-2020; Consolidating and expanding procedures that have joined the National Single Window; Newly deploying the procedures of the ministries and agencies participating in the National Single Window; Deploying electronic payment on the National Portal; Deploying the use of electronic documents issued through the National Single Window when implementing relatedadministrative procedures; and Expanding the e-Manifest system for all seaports and airports nationwide and linking them withthe ASEAN Single Window.

Finalizing and enhancing the effectiveness of the automated clearance system VNACCS/VCIS is also a task that Customs needs to implement well in 2017. Accordingly, the electronic connection and exchange of information on goods at ports to reduce paperwork and improve the effectiveness of State management for goods and containers at the seaports.

Cooperating with commercial banks to expand electronic payments in accordance with Circular No. 184/2015/TT-BTC dated November 11, 2015 of the Minister of Finance prescribing procedures for tax declaration, tax guarantee; tax collection, late payment penalties, fines, fees, charges and other levies for imported and exported, transited goods and means. Formulating the mechanism on origin control, the protection of intellectual property rights and the management regime for appropriate types of goods and means of transport according to the committed roadmap.

In particular, the Customs Offices are step by step effectively implementing online public services at level 3, and striving to the end of 2017 that 100% of public service will be provided online at level 3 and 70% of other public services in key sectors of the Customs will be provided online at level 4.

The General Department of Customs requested the heads of the units and subunits under the General Department to build plans for the implementation of tasks assigned in the Action Plan, and concretize the tasks into solutions, schemes, works, output and completion schedule of assigned tasks to develop the work program of their units.

Concurrently, effectively implementingthe administration reform under the 2017 Administration Reform Plan of the General Department issued together with Decision No. 31/QD-TCHQ dated January 9, 2017, noting to deploy full contents on administration reform under requirements of Resolution 30c/NQ-CP dated November 8, 2011 of the Government promulgating the Master program on State administration reform for 2011-2020 period, ensuring its suitability with the situation, scope and characteristics of the units (from 2017, the General Department plans to carry out the evaluation, grading, ranking for administration reform of the units annually).

Receiving dossiers and returning results of processing administrative procedures through public postal services in compliance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 45/2016/QD-TTg of October 19, 2016 under the direction of the General Department. Developing and implementing the 2017 plan on preventing and fighting against corruption, implementing savings and combating wastefulness; and deploying effectively the 2017 plan on administrative procedure control issued by the General Department together with Decision No. 55/QD-TCHQ dated January 11, 2017; Building e-Government according to the annual plan of the General Department.

Enhancing and improving the quality and effectiveness of post clearance audit in accordance with the law. Attaching importance to internal inspection of post clearance audit activities; deploying the application of the ISO quality management system into the operation of agencies and units under the direction of the General Department; Further training and improving the quality of cadres and civil servants; Upholding the spirit and attitude of serving the people; Strengthening disciplines andrules.

Focusing on effectively implementing the scheme on enhancing the reform of regime on public operationsand civil servants in line with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1557/QD-TTg dated October 18, 2012; Well implementing regulations on public operations of Vietnam Customs issued together with Decision No. 188/QD-TCHQ dated February, 2, 2017; Consolidating the apparatus to meet requirements of administration reform and change management modes at units and subunits under the General Department of Customs in order to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of State management and carry out the tasks assigned in the Resolution No. 19-2017/NQ-CP

The General Department of Customs also requested the Legal Department to monitor, urge and inspect the units and subunits under the General Department of Customs to carry out the tasks assigned in the Action Plan and promptly report to the General Department difficulties and obstacles of implementation, thereby, proposing solutions to improve national competitiveness within the management scope of the General Department.”
The Customsnews, Customs Electronic Information Portal and Customs Research Bulletin timely publicize operations on deploying and implementing the Action Plan of the General Department for the implementation of Resolution No. 19- 2017/NQ-CP dated February 6, 2017 of the Government.

To implement Resolution No. 19-2017/NQ-CP of the Government and the Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 19-2017/NQ-CP of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Customs issued 11 task groups, 29 measures and 38 outputs in the Action plan.

By Dao Le/ Huyen Trang