Regulations Amending and Supplementing the Forms of Sanctions for Customs Violations in Vietnam

Illustrative Photo

According to this Draft, for each administrative violation in the customs sector, organizations and individuals in Vietnam may be subject to one of the following forms of punishment, which are a warning or a fine.

1. Regarding a warning: Applied to individuals aged 14 to under 16 who violate the provisions of this Draft. (Decree 127/2013/ND-CP and Decree 45/2016/ND-CP do not specify this content)

2. Regarding fines: The fine level for individuals and organizations violating the provisions of this Draft is as follows:

- The fine level specified in Chapter II of this Draft is the fine level for organizations; the fine level for individuals is half of the fine level for organizations, except for cases specified in points b and c of Clause 3, Article 5 of this Draft;

- The fine level for violations specified in Article 10 of this Draft is the fine level for individuals;

- The fine level for administrative violations regarding tax management specified in Articles 9 and 14 of this Draft is the fine level applied to both individuals and organizations as stipulated in Clause 4 of Article 136 and Clause 2 of Article 138 of the 2019 Law on Tax Administration;

- Business households must register their business activities as prescribed by law, and family households committing administrative violations as stipulated in this Draft will be penalized as individuals. (This is new content added to the Draft compared to Decree 127 and Decree 45)

3. Regarding additional penalties: Confiscation of items involved in administrative violations.

4. Regarding remedial measures: Individuals and organizations committing administrative violations may also be subject to one or more of the following remedial measures:

- Compulsory removal from the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or compulsory re-export of goods, means of transport;

- Compulsory transportation of goods through transit, port, border gate, or customs checkpoint in accordance with regulations;

- Compulsory removal of packaging, product labels altered due to violations; compulsory removal of violation elements on product labels before goods are taken out of the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; (This is new content added to the Draft compared to Decree 127 and Decree 45)

- Compulsory destruction of goods, items harmful to human health, animals, plants, and the environment, cultural products containing harmful substances;

- Compulsory repayment of the value of confiscated items in cases where the confiscated items are no longer available;

- Compulsory payment of the amount of evaded or deficient taxes; (This is new content added to the Draft compared to Decree 127 and Decree 45)

- Compulsory payment of exempted, reduced, refunded, or incorrectly not collected taxes; (This is new content added to the Draft compared to Decree 127 and Decree 45)

- Compulsory labeling with "Vietnam duty not paid" stickers as prescribed. (This is new content added to the Draft compared to Decree 127 and Decree 45)

Note: The bolded content in the article indicates the changes in the Draft compared to the current regulations in Decree 127 and Decree 45.

More information on the content of the Draft can be found HERE.

Nguyen Trinh

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