Businesses contribute to draft amended Customs Law

Businesses contribute to draft amended Customs Law

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in coordination with the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance, on June 11, organised a workshop to gather business opinions on the draft law amending and supplementing several articles of the Customs Law.

Many businesses contributed opinions on the draft amended Customs Law

Dau Anh Tuan, deputy secretary general and head of the Legal Department, said, “In surveys conducted by VCCI, Customs has consistently been recognised by the business community leading sectors in administrative procedure reform and digital transformation.”

“It is on this positive foundation that the current amendment to the Customs Law has been received with high expectations by the business community. We appreciate the spirit of the draft, especially the institutionalisation of important Party resolutions such as Resolution 57, Resolution 66, and Resolution 68, with a clear message: shifting from a management to a service mindset, with businesses at the centre,” Tuan said.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy director of the Customs Department, said that Customs Law No.54/2014/QH13 came into effect on January 1, 2015, and has been in effect for 12 years. During this time, it still has seen delays, waste time and money for the business community.

“To overcome this, the draft law is expected to amend, supplement, and repeal 42 articles, while adding four new articles out of 104 articles in the current law. This is a concrete step in implementing the Politburo's resolutions on encouraging the private economy, national digital transformation, and reforming the legislative process, while also aligning with the policy of streamlining the local government apparatus from three levels to two levels,” Hung said.

At the meeting, dozens of businesses concentrated on six subjects. The first was digital customs. Converting all documents to electronic form, automated document verification, and eliminating geographical boundaries will save a significant amount of time and costs.

Regarding customs management via e-commerce platforms, the draft stipulates the responsibility of e-commerce platform owners to declare customs. This is a very new issue, with rapid development and involving many stakeholders. VCCI hopes business can clarify the boundaries of responsibility between platform owners, sellers, shipping companies, and buyers, to ensure strict management while avoiding an excessive compliance burden.

Furthermore, the representatives of firms and manufacturers gave opinions on compliance management, customs clearance agents, the temporary suspension of customs procedures for transit goods showing signs of intellectual property infringement, and post-clearance inspection and decentralisation of authority.

Le Thi Xuan Hue, deputy director of BowerGroupAsia Vietnam Co., Ltd., said, “The drafting agency should also consider adding a mechanism for accountability in the process of assessing business compliance. In reality, many cases of businesses being penalised are not due to intentional violations but stem from inconsistencies or overlaps between legal regulations in various fields.”

“Being rated low in compliance has many consequences, such as increased inspection frequency, prolonged customs clearance time, and increased production and business costs. A mechanism is needed to allow for accountability in cases arising from objective reasons or force majeure before deciding on the level of compliance assessment,” she said.

Phan Manh Ha, director of External Relations at Shopee, suggested reconsidering the regulation requiring e-commerce platforms to declare and verify buyer information because platforms are only intermediaries connecting businesses; they do not own the goods or original data. Therefore, their role should only be to provide information. Ha also expressed concern that verifying the buyer for low-value goods (under $200) would increase costs and prolong customs clearance time.

VIR