Vietnam: Amendments on customs declaration

According to Decree No. 59/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, the customs declarant shall be able to choose between electronic customs declaration and paper customs declaration if:

- The cargos required to complete customs declaration before being exported or imported belong to border residents.

- Exported and imported cargos exceed the limits on tax exemption applied to the inbound and outbound person.

- Cargos used for emergency purpose and humanitarian aid; exported and imported cargos used for military and national defense.

- Cargos as personal gifts, presents and belongings.

- Cargos are equipment used for containing cargo according to the rotation method of temporary importation - re-exportation, or temporary exportation – re-importation as stipulated in point a, point b, Clause 1, Article 49 hereof.

- Cargos temporarily imported and re-exported, or temporarily exported and re-imported which are carried by inbound and outbound persons for working purposes within a specified period.

- Cases where the customs electronic data processing system or the electronic customs declaration system fails to carry out mutual electronic transactions which may be caused by the operational failure of one or both systems or from other reasons.

- Other commodities stipulated by the Ministry of Finance.

In case where the customs electronic data processing system fails to carry out the electronic customs procedures, the customs authority shall announce this problem on its website no later than 01 hour from the time such failure occurs.

In case where the electronic customs declaration system of the customs declarant fails to carry out procedures, the declarant shall notify in writing to the Customs Sub-department where he/she is expected to carry out customs procedures. In the notification, he/she shall include his/her full name, the reasons of failure, the expected duration for fixing them and the methods for carrying out customs procedures, as guided by the Minister of Finance.

Regarding the customs declarant, in comparison with Decree No. 08/2015/NĐ-CP, Decree No. 59/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government has stipulated more specifically the case where the customs authority examine the application documents and has reasonable grounds for determining that the applicant must have a permit for transporting his/her commodities but he/she does not have it by the time submitting the declaration, this action shall be treated in accordance with the law. To be specific:

- The customs declarant shall provide sufficient, accurate and clear information as required in the customs declaration. He/she shall decide his/her self-assessed taxes and other payments to the State Budget and shall take full responsibility before the law for the declared information.

- In case where the declarant must obtain a permit to export and import commodities, he/she must receive the aforesaid permit before submitting the customs declaration and must provide sufficient information regarding the permit as guided by the Ministry of Finance.

- If the customs authority examine the application documents and has reasonable grounds for determining that the applicant must have a permit for transporting his/her commodities but he/she does not have it by the time submitting the declaration, this action shall be treated in accordance with the law due to administrative offenses, and the customs declaration shall be no longer valid.

- If exports or imports are classified as regulated entities required to pay export and import taxes, excise duties, value-added taxes, environmental taxes, or of which export and import taxes are exempted or the tax rate and flat-rate duty are imposed according to the tariff quota, and the cargos are customs released or cleared but then subject to changes in entities that are not required to pay taxes or in purposes for which exports and imports are exempted from paying taxes; exports and imports are taxed for flat-rate duty or at the rate that conforms to the tariff quota; imports are raw materials used for processing or manufacturing exports and temporarily imported—re-exported products that have been released or cleared but then their use purpose has changed for domestic consumption, new customs declarations shall be submitted instead. Policies on management of exports and imports; and policies on taxes levied on exports and imports shall be implemented at the time when new customs declarations are registered, except cases where all policies on management of exports and imports have been fully implemented at the time when the initial customs declaration is registered.

If previously in Decree No. 08/2015/NĐ-CP detailing the additional declaration and cancellation of customs declarations, registration of a one-time customs declaration, new customs declaration for goods that have changed their use purpose, or have been consumed domestically then Decree No. 59/2018/NĐ-CP has supplemented the regulation on handling in case the customs electronic data processing system or the electronic customs declaration system has problems, which is under the authority of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam.

View relevant provisions at Decree No. 59/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from June 05, 2018.

-Thao Uyen-

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