At the meeting, the review teams presented the review of the overlapping import and export commodities in specialised management and inspection under the Prime Minister's guidance in Official Dispatch No. 7957/VPCP-KSTT on September 5, 2019; reviewing the progress and results of implementing tasks of specialised inspection reform assigned in Decision No. 1254/QD-TTg to propose amendments to the above decision; review and apply the HS codes to the lists of goods subject to specialised control and inspection.
According to the statistics of the Trade Facilitation Project, after three working days, the groups have reviewed 469 documents (up 35 documents compared to the last review conducted in May 2019); 236 catalogs were reviewed with approximately 59,275 items; 1,767 items without HS codes.
During the review process, the groups discussed 5 overlapping items under the Government's direction in Official Letter 7957/VPCP-KSTT; Reviewing HS code 14 lists under the management of five ministries of Industry and Trade, Science and Technology; Construction, Public Security, Defence.
Attending the workshop were representatives of ministries, agencies and experts showing high consensus on the reviewed results. Leaders of the General Department of Customs also noted several comments from experts and ministries and sectors related to the review as well as achieved results.
Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Research Department, Central Institute for Economic Management said the review results not only show some items are overlapping in ministries' management, but also identify problems and irrationalities in the law. According to Thao, to be more effective, review results should add recommendations, when the Customs authorities encounter problems with such items and how they should be handled.
Appreciating the working spirit of review teams, the representative of the Ministry of Public Security said they would acknowledge issues raised by the review team related to management of the Ministry of Public Security for research and improvement.
Regarding the opinion of the General Department of Customs' leader on the need to encode civil import items of the Ministry of Defence, for specific items that belong to national security, even though there is no code, the Customs Office can look at those when determining that these are items related to national security, representing the Ministry of Defence said, there are certain difficulties in describing goods for specific items, even some items if applying eight-digit code will fall into other categories, the future will affect businesses.
According to a representative of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Defence's list of goods banned from import is items that businesses are not allowed to import. The Ministry of Defence wants to import and must report to the Prime Minister. These goods have always been specially cleared and so far no problems have been detected from enterprises on the Ministry of Defence Circular regarding import and export goods. However, to meet the requirements of the customs management, the Ministry of Defence can train customs officers to identify the goods that cannot be applied.
Appreciate the frankness of the ministries in making specific plans for goods that are overlapping in management to avoid meeting with the Government, Deputy General Director of General Department of Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said, in this review, the ministries have made many breakthroughs and boldness. Although it is not the final opinion, the opinions of the representatives of the ministries and branches participating in the review of the Ministry of Finance also have a basis for summarising and reporting to the Prime Minister.
Regarding handling of overlapping managed items, according to Deputy General Director Mai Xuan Thanh, if they have agreed to transfer to a managing ministry, there is no need to wait for the ministries to amend the circular and the ministries propose The Office of the Government and the Prime Minister allows notification to the business community and the Customs office so it can be implemented in a timely manner.
In particular, “it is recommended that the ministries also have internal arrangements to create favorable conditions for businesses to avoid having the enterprises think that although they have been collected in one connection, there is no overlap between ministries, but within the ministry is still overlapping,” emphasised Deputy Director Mai Xuan Thanh.
With the results of the review, the General Department of Customs and the Ministry of Finance will soon report to the Government Office and have ideas to participate in overcoming shortcomings and shortcomings in the ministries and branches. Common goals create favourable conditions for enterprises to develop, stimulate production and import and export activities, Deputy General Director of General Department of Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said.
Source: Customsnews.vn