To: Provincial Customs Departments.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has been informed by some Provincial Customs Departments that the suspension of entry of goods into customs controlled areas and inspection of goods moved to another custom post outside the checkpoint area or vice versa with container scanners have caused extended inspection period and large quantity of suspended or inspected shipments with a low rate of violation detection, and thus caused extended clearance period and increased costs incurred by enterprises.

For the purposes of the Notice No. 4244/TB-TCHQ dated October 10, 2022 announced by the Director General at the online meeting on reporting on working results of Quarter III and assignment of tasks of Quarter IV, the General Department of Vietnam Customs hereby requests relevant units to consistently comply with the following guidelines:

1. Regarding suspension of entry of imported/exported goods into customs controlled areas:

1.1. Regarding exported goods:

The provisions of Article 52d of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015, as amended in the Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam shall apply.

1.2. Regarding imported goods:

a) If the imported goods are reported as those banned or suspended from import or there are evidences of violations, the provisions of Article 52d of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015, as amended in the Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam shall apply.

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1.3. Responsibility to identify violations, take actions and submit reports:

a) When issuing a decision on suspension of entry of goods into a customs controlled area, the Director of the Customs Sub-department is required to identify specific signs of violation and use assessment results of collected information as prescribed. In case a shipment is comprised of multiple containers, the number of the container in question must be identified. Only doubtful containers shall be presented for inspection purpose. If a provincial Customs Department has a scanner, the inspection of goods shall be carried out using the scanner. If a violation is found during the scanner-aided inspection, the manual inspection shall be carried out. Where a scanner is not available, the inspection shall be carried out by the customs official and must be completed by the deadline prescribed in Clause 2 Article 23 of the Law on Customs;

b) Provincial Customs Departments are requested to submit periodical reports on Monday weekly on the suspension of entry of goods into customs controlled areas of their affiliated Customs Sub-departments (using the form in Appendix I enclosed herewith) via email: [email protected]. Such reports shall not be required if there is no case of suspension.

2. Inspection of goods moved to another custom post outside the checkpoint area or vice versa with container scanners:

a) The inspection of goods moved to another custom post outside the checkpoint area or vice versa with container scanners shall be conducted in accordance with the Decision No. 3272/QD-TCHQ dated November 24, 2020 of the Director General of General Department of Vietnam Customs and on the basis of the volume of moved goods in order to facilitate enterprises’ import.

b) Imports transported from the checkpoint of import to the inspection site of the Customs Sub-department outside that checkpoint area for inspection must be properly sealed and supervised as prescribed. The inspection site must be recognized by the customs authority to meet customs inspection and supervision requirements laid down in law.

3. The Customs Supervision and Management Department is assigned to carry out the analysis of efficiency of suspension of entry of goods into customs controlled areas and inspection of goods moved to another custom post outside the checkpoint area or vice versa with container scanners, provide advice for the Director General about modification of scanning level and goods suspended from entry into controlled areas in order to ensure the prescribed customs clearance period, facilitate import and export as well as ensure validity and efficiency in management tasks.

For your information and compliance./.

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PP. DIRECTOR GENERAL
DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL




Mai Xuan Thanh