(PLO)- The customs sector aims to be “paperless”, 100% of customs procedures are carried out in the online environment.
Convenient import and export operations, quick procedures, no waiting, no complaints. That’s what businesses (DN) informed us when asked about customs procedures over the years.
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| Customs authorities are aiming for 100% of high-risk goods transported by containers to be monitored by modern technical means. Photo: Q.HUY |
Businesses no longer complain
As an enterprise specializing in exporting food products to fastidious markets such as Japan, Mr. Pham Hai Long, General Director of Agrex Saigon Food Joint Stock Company (HCMC), said that customs procedures are very important. Over the years, customs procedures are all electronic, no need to come in person, wait for declarations to be submitted, so the export activities of enterprises are very convenient.
“The customs declaration of enterprises has been processed through the automatic clearance system (VNACCS/VCIS). Enterprises are classified into the green channel, so the clearance time is shortened to only a few seconds,” said Mr. Long.
In addition, e-customs also helps businesses develop an internal management model that integrates with declaration and customs clearance, sharing information to modernize their management system. With declared data, businesses can perform statistics, reports and analysis to get better results and business plans.
The application of information technology in customs declaration and supervision… has been very effective during the outbreak of COVID-19. E-customs helps businesses’ goods still ensure timely customs clearance.
A representative of a company specializing in importing very large food processing additives said that every month the company has to open several hundred import declarations. In addition to electronic customs procedures, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department also has a project to facilitate trade in logistics activities and prevent congestion at Cat Lai port. Although there is a large amount of goods cleared every day, businesses do not face any difficulties in customs procedures. All stages from opening declarations, paying taxes, customs clearance… are done on electronic software.
E-customs is transparent in carrying out procedures, reducing direct contact between enterprises and customs officers.
Talking to Ho Chi Minh City Law, a representative of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that the department has implemented VNACCS/VCIS since 2014. Over the past time, the City Customs Department has cleared the volume of goods with a turnover and tax revenue equivalent to one third of the whole country.
Compared with traditional customs procedures, using papers as before, e-customs brings businesses a lot of benefits, can do remote procedures, saving costs and time. Secondly, enterprises are more proactive in production and business thanks to faster feedback on customs clearance results. The speed of customs clearance is much faster than doing it manually.
“Especially, e-customs is transparent in carrying out procedures, reducing direct contact between businesses and customs officers” – a representative of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department shared.
According to the General Department of Customs, up to now, 5E objectives have been completed, including: Carrying out customs procedures entirely by electronic method (e-Declaration); strongly deploying electronic payment (e-Payment); eC/O – issue an electronic certificate of origin (C/O); electronic manifests (e-Manifest); grant licenses to ministries and branches (e-Permit). At the same time, a centralized information technology system at the general department level was built, serving the state management of customs, operating stably, smoothly, covering and supporting most of the key areas of customs management.
Strive to satisfy 95% of businesses or more
By 2030, the General Department of Customs will strive to complete smart customs and the satisfaction level of enterprises will reach 95% or more.
100% of documents in customs dossiers are converted into electronic data, moving towards digitization. 100% of key international ports and border gates are deployed with an automatic cargo monitoring management system. 100% of high-risk goods transported by containers are monitored by modern technical means, and data is connected to a centralized processing center of the customs authority.
Need synchronous coordination
The customs industry sets a goal of digital and smart customs in the coming years, but there are still difficulties to overcome. Specifically, the automatic customs clearance system has undergone a long operation process (nearly eight years) and revealed a number of limitations, which need to be upgraded and improved.
“In addition, the volume of goods is increasing, human resources are decreasing, the pressure is increasing, requiring the customs authorities to have strong, modern and intelligent information systems to be able to meet them” – a representative of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department informed.
To move towards digital and smart customs, the Customs Department needs to be supplemented with a suitable qualified workforce as well as training to improve the capacity of the current team.
In terms of physical facilities, the customs authority must be equipped with modern equipment that can connect and communicate data with the intelligent customs system such as visual surveillance systems capable of identifying objects, smart navigation systems, baggage scanners, and artificial intelligence-integrated cargo scanners.
The City Customs Department also proposed a new and appropriate legal corridor to convert the current model to a digital and smart customs model.
Mr. Dao Duy Tam, Deputy Director of Customs Management Supervision Department (General Department of Customs), said that customs always create favorable conditions for import and export of goods. In the first six months of 2022, the total amount of export declarations is about 4 million. In which, the proportion of red channel declarations subject to physical inspection of goods accounts for just over 2%; gold flow rate 18.6%; the green channel declaration alone accounts for nearly 80%.
From the beginning of 2022, the customs sector has provided free software for businesses to make customs declarations. This is to help businesses reduce costs related to procurement, upgrade equipment and software to use customs declaration as well as support businesses to access the upcoming orientation of the customs office.
“We will continue to review and coordinate with agencies and departments to reduce manual documents by paper, and orient to electronic procedures; specialized inspection licenses will move to digitization and documentization,” said Mr. Tam.
According to Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, the customs sector has also actively implemented many handling solutions to help businesses quickly clear goods when there are congestion at border gates in the past time. However, traffic jams still occur. Therefore, enterprises expect customs authorities, relevant ministries and sectors to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with functional agencies of other countries to find solutions to remove and enhance trade promotion.
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Mr. PHAM XUAN HONG, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Association:
E-customs eliminates negativity
If before, when it comes to customs, businesses all complain and complain about procedures, since the implementation of e-customs this has stopped. Export and import activities of textile and garment enterprises are favorable and effective, reflected in the growth in export turnover each year.
Another positive point is to eliminate the psychology of asking – for when businesses are waiting for paper procedures. E-customs helps to reduce direct contact between businesses and customs officers, limit negativity and harassment, create a healthy business environment, increase competitiveness, and attract foreign investment.
World Customs races to use AI, drones
According to the General Department of Customs, the customs of some developed countries in the world have been and will accelerate the application of achievements of the 4.0 industrial revolution such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, Internet of things (IoT), big data, open application programming interface (open API)…
US Customs applied the global automatic key identification system; unmanned airspace control system; a passenger advance information system that interfaces with Interpol; non-intrusive testing systems…
US Customs also applied artificial intelligence technology, fingerprint biometric technology, sensor devices, surveillance camera systems, infrared devices and radioactive devices to detect violations at the border.
In Japan, the country’s customs also use artificial intelligence to intelligently scan and identify shipments.
Meanwhile, Chinese customs early applied modern technologies such as traceability, robots, drones, big data technology, data sharing…; integrate intelligent management, optimize human resource management, control internal risks; Early warning, logistics chain management…
QUANG HUY