Decision No. 2061/QD-BTC dated October 13, 2017 on application of pilot automatic customs management and supervision of exports, imports and goods in transit at Noi Bai international airport

DECISION

ON APPLICATION OF PILOT AUTOMATIC CUSTOMS MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION OF EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND GOODS IN TRANSIT AT NOI BAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

MINISTER OF FINANCE

Pursuant to Law on Customs No. 54/2014/QH13 dated June 23, 2014;

Pursuant to Law on E-transaction No. 51/2005/QH11 dated November 29, 2005;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP dated January 21, 2015 providing guidelines for Law on Customs related to customs procedures, inspection, supervision and control;

Pursuant to the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Minister of Finance on customs procedures; customs inspection and supervision; export duty, import duty and tax management applicable to exports and imports;

In consideration of request of Director of General Department of Vietnam Customs,

HEREBY DECIDES THAT:

Article 1.Regulations on application of the pilot automatic customs management and supervision of exports, imports and goods in transit at Noi Bai international airport (hereinafter referred to as “the pilot project”) are issued together with this Decision

Article 2. Scope of the pilot project

1. The pilot project is applicable to exports, imports and goods in transit whose export border checkpoint (loading place specified in the export declaration) or import border checkpoint (unloading place specified in the import declaration) is Noi Bai international airport under the management of Department of Customs of Ha Noi city

2. The project duration shall be from October 16, 2017 to the time when the Circular on amendments to the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 comes into force.

Article 3.Responsibilities ofGeneral Department of Vietnam Customs:

1. Prepare sufficient technical facilities serving the pilot project

2. Direct Departments of Customs of provinces to instruct declarants and traders of air freight terminals in Noi Bai international airport and providers of logistics services to comply with regulations in Article 1 and Article 2 of the document issued together with this Decision when they go through customs procedures applicable to exports, imports and goods in transit whose export or import border checkpoint is Noi Bai international airport.

3. Departments of Customs of provinces and cities shall instruct declarants and traders of air freight terminals in Noi Bai international airport and providers of logistics services to comply with the document issued together with this Decision when they go through customs procedures applicable to exports, imports and goods in transit whose export or import border checkpoint is Noi Bai international airport.

4. When the project duration expires, submit reports, assess results of the project and propose solutions for completing contents of the pilot project to produce a legislative document on customs.

Article 4.This Decision comes into force from October 16, 2017.

The Director of General Department of Vietnam Customs, Chief of the Offices of Ministry of Finance, Directors of Department of Customs of provinces shall take responsibility for implementing this Decision. Any problem arising during the implementation of this Decision should be reported to the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Vietnam Customs) for timely solutions.

REGULATIONS

ON APPLICATION OF THE PILOT AUTOMATIC CUSTOMS MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION OF EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND GOODS IN TRANSIT AT NOI BAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
(issued together with the Decision No. 2061/QD-BTC dated October 13, 2017 of Minister of Finance)

Part I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Conditions for goods allowed to be sent to and removed from air freight terminals and unconformable goods

1. The following goods are allowed to be sent to an air freight terminal:

a) Exports that have gone through customs procedures and are confirmed to be eligible for delivering to customs controlled areas by the electronic system of the customs authority (hereinafter referred to as "customs system”);

b) Imports that have not gone through customs procedures, are unloaded from inbound vehicles and sent to air freight terminals pending customs procedures.

2. The following goods are allowed to be removed from an air freight terminal:

a) Exports that are being stored in air freight terminals;

b) Imports that are being stored in air freight terminals and have their eligibility for being released from customs controlled areas confirmed in a notification sent to the trader of air freight terminals (hereinafter to as “trader”) by the customs authority.

3. Customs management and supervision of goods in transit are similar to those of exports and imports prescribed in this Decision.

4. The trader shall only allow exports, imports or goods in transit to be sent to or removed from air freight terminals if it has received the information on status of goods and confirmation of eligibility for being sent to or released from custom controlled areas from the customs authority.

5. Unconformable goods prescribed in this document include the goods that are not included in the manifest, goods that are unidentified because of lost labels, goods whose packages are damaged, etc

Article 2. Principles of declaration of unique consignment references (UCR) of exports and imports

1. UCRs of exports and imports declared in electronic customs declarations thereof shall be specified as follows:

a) Regarding UCRs of imports:

a.1) In the section “1.26 - Số vận đơn” (1.26- Air waybill (AWB) No.) of the import declaration, the declarant shall enter the following information as the UCR of imports: Year + the Master Airway Bill (MAWB) No. + the House Airway Bill (HAWB) No. ;

a.2) Principles:

a.2.1) UCR of imports shall be declared according to the principle of consecutive combination and the following order: year + MAWB No. + HAWB No. There is no space or special characters such as *, #, &, @, /, etc in a UCR of imports. Where:

- “Year” refers to issuance year of the MAWB and in YYYY format;

- “MAWB No.” refers to a number specified in an airway bill issued by an international airline for cargo transport. For example: the MAWB No. 131 NRT 29038656 is issued by the Japan Airline on October 03, 2017;

- “HAWB No.” refers to a number specified in an airway bill issued by a forwarder, in which, name of the consignee is the importer’s names specified in the customs declaration.

For example: The declarant receives a set of documents with the following information:

- The MAWB No.: 131 NRT 29038656 issued by the Japan Airline on October 03, 2017;

- The HAWB No.: KKLHB5587

The UCR of imports will be: “2017131NRT29038656 KKLHB5587”.

a.2.2) If the consignor uses transport services provided by an airline for transporting goods instead of a forwarder, the UCR of imports shall exclude the HAWB No.

For example: The declarant receives a set of documents with the following information:

The MAWB No.: 131 NRT 29038656 issued by the Japan Airline on October 03, 2017;

The UCR of imports will be: “2017131NRT29038656”.

b) Regarding UCR of exports:

b.1) Principles: UCR of exports shall be issued automatically on the customs system or public service system (link: pus.customs.gov.vn) by the customs authority. Before registering the export declaration, the declarant shall login the abovementioned system to receive UCR of exports;

b.2) Declaration method: The declarant shall declare the issued UCR of exports in the section “2.24 - Số vận đơn” (“2.24 – AWB No.) of the electronic export declaration.

Part II

IMPLEMENTATION

Section 1. CUSTOMS SUPERVISION APPLICABLE TO IMPORTS SENT TO, STORED IN OR REMOVED FROM AIR FREIGHT TERMINALS

Article 3. Imports sent to, stored in or removed from air freight terminals

1. Before imports sent to air freight terminals are unloaded:

a) The trader shall:

Receive information on the list of goods expected to be unloaded, UCR of imports and the list of goods subject to cargo scanning (if any) from the customs system;

b) The customs authority shall:

Provide information on the list of goods expected to be unloaded (weight and quantity), UCR of imports and the list of goods subject to cargo scanning (if any) in accordance with regulations in Appendix 1 issued together with this Decision to the trader.

2. During the unloading of goods at air freight terminals

a) The trader shall:

a.1) Inspect condition of packages; compare quantity and weight of bales of goods (if any) specified in the HAWB and actually sent to air freight terminals with information received from the customs system.

If packages are damaged, which leads to wrong weight of goods or the goods have signs of violations of law, notify it to the customs authority, store the goods at proper positions and cooperate in dealing with this problem;

a.2) Provide information on the goods unconformable with the information provided by the customs system, places of storage and places of supervisory cameras in the terminal storing the abovementioned goods; update information on the unconformable goods or goods having signs of violations of law in accordance with Appendix 2 of this Decision on the customs system.

If the goods are included in the list of goods subject to cargo scanning provided by the customs authority, the trader shall provide information on place of storage and place of supervisory cameras, transport the goods subject to cargo scanning to the place of cargo scanning at the request of customs authority and return them to their places after they are scanned or send them to the separate place of storage if violation are suspected;

a.3) Within 1 hour after the goods are unloaded and moved to a proper position, update information of the goods, information on adjusting or invalidating AWBs in accordance with regulations in Appendix 2 of this Decision and send it to the customs system.

b) The customs authority shall:

b.1) According to the information received from the declarant and other information (if any), analyze and determine main flights and main shipments, the manager of branch of customs shall decide how to supervise the handling of goods by the main flight;

b.2) Provide phone number to receive information and cooperate in dealing with notification sent by the trader; provide the list of goods subject to cargo scanning (if any) for the trader and update results after the goods are scanned;

b.3) Receive information of the goods sent to air freight terminals; information on adjusting or invalidating the list of goods sent to the terminal (if any) or information on unconformable goods (if any) and approve information on invalidating the list of goods sent to air freight terminals (if any) on the system.

3. While the goods are stored at air freight terminals, if the status quo of goods is changed (in case of physical inspection, sampling or change of packages)

a) The customs declarant shall:

a.1) In case of physical inspection of goods: follow instructions in Article 17 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of Ministry of Finance;

a.2) In case of goods sampling: follow instructions in Article 31 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of Ministry of Finance;

a.3) In case of change to packages of goods, send a notification of the change to the customs authority. After receiving approval from the customs authority, the declarant shall work with the trader and transporter to change packages of goods under the supervision of customs officials and sign the certification record after finishing their work.

b) Each trader shall:

Cooperate with the customs authority in witnessing and signing the record on certifying changes in status quo of goods; update information on such changes on the customs system.

c) The customs authority shall:

c.1) Notify the trader of cooperation in considering and dealing with changes in status quo of goods according to information received from the declarant or other information (if any) on the shipment;

c.2) Supervise the changes in the status quo of goods, seal goods (if necessary) and make 03 certification records which bear signatures and seals of the custom official and give each party one of them;

c.3) Receive information on changes in the status quo of goods from the trader’s goods management system (hereinafter referred to as “trader’s system”).

4. When the goods are removed from the air freight terminals

a) The customs declarant shall:

a.1) Provide the customs declaration No. or the UCR of imports of the shipment for the trader;

a.2) Present the goods to the customs officials for customs sealing if the goods have to be sealed in accordance with regulations and law; present the customs declaration or document issued by the competent authority (if any) to the customs authority for inspection and confirmation as prescribed by law.

b) Each trader shall:

b.1) Inspect and compare the consistency of information received from the customs system with the goods actually removed from the air freight terminals in terms of the eligibility for being released from the customs controlled areas, quantity and weight of bales of goods (if any) and:

b.1.1) If the goods are eligible for being released from the custom controlled areas and their information is consistent, allow these goods to be released from the custom controlled area;

b.1.2) If the trader has not received the information on eligibility for being released from the customs controlled area from the customs system or receive the decision on stopping releasing goods from the customs controlled areas, refuse to allow the goods to be removed from the air freight terminal and instruct the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions as prescribed by law.

b.2) Update the information on the goods released from customs controlled areas according to each UCR of imports on the customs system.

c) The customs authority shall:

c.1) Regarding the goods subject to custom sealing as prescribed by law, inspect the condition of packages of goods with the information prescribed in the custom declaration; seal the goods and make records on transfer and confirmation which bear signatures and seals of customs officials, give a copy to the declarant or transporter and retain the other one;

c.2) Provide information on the goods eligible for being released from to the customs controlled area in accordance with regulations of law and send it to the trader’s system; send the decision on stopping releasing goods from the customs controlled area (if any) to the trader;

c.3) Receive information on the goods removed from the air freight terminals from the trader’s system.

c.4) Instruct the declarant to go through customs procedures applicable to unconformable shipments.

Section 2. CUSTOMS SUPERVISION APPLICABLE TO EXPORTS SENT TO, STORED IN OR REMOVED FROM AIR FREIGHT TERMINALS

Article 4. Exports sent to, stored in or removed from air freight terminals

1. When exports are sent to air freight terminals

a) The declarant or transporter shall:

a.1) Provide information on UCR of exports and the customs declaration sent to air freight terminals pending export for the trader;

a.2) Present the goods with customs sealing, customs declarations or documents issued by the competent authority to the customs officials for inspection and confirmation as prescribed by law.

b) Each trader shall:

b.1) Receive information on goods eligible for being sent to the customs controlled area and the list of goods subject to cargo scanning (if any) in accordance with regulations of law from the customs system

If the shipment must be scanned at the request of the customs authority, transport the goods to the scanning place and return them to the place of storage pending export after they are scanned. If the goods have signs of violations, the trader shall cooperate with the customs authority for dealing with and storing them in separate areas;

b.2) Inspect and compare the consistency of information received from the customs system and UCR of exports with those provided by the declarant or transporter (information specified in the HAWB) related to quantity and weight of bales (if any) when sending the goods to terminals and:

If the information is consistent, unload and put the goods in the terminal according to the information provided by the declarant or the transporter;

If the trader has not received information on eligibility of goods for being released from the customs controlled area from the customs system or receive the decision on stopping releasing goods from the customs controlled areas or in case of unconformity, refuse to allow the goods to be sent to the air freight terminal, provide information for the customs authority and instruct the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions;

b.3) After the goods are unloaded and put in air freight terminals, update information on adjusting or invalidating the list of goods sent to air freight terminals or information on the unconformable goods (if any), information on the goods sent to air freight terminals and send them to the customs system.

c) The customs authority shall:

c.1) Regarding the goods subject to custom sealing as prescribed by law, inspect and compare the condition of custom sealing with information in the transfer record; confirm the sealing and update arrival of the goods on the system; confirm the transfer record (if any) by appending a signature and seal, give a copy to the declarant or transporter and retain the other one;

c.2) Regarding the goods declared on the customs declaration or goods exported under a document issued by the competent authority, inspect, compare and update information on the customs system; append a signature and seal of the custom officials on the customs declaration in accordance with regulations and law; update information of goods eligible for being released from customs controlled area on the customs system, print and give the declarant or transporter the list of goods eligible for being released from the customs controlled area for presentation to the trader of air freight terminals;

c.3) Receive information of the goods sent to air freight terminals; information on adjusting or invalidating the list of goods sent to the air freight terminal or information on unconformable goods (if any) and approve information on invalidating the list of goods sent to air freight terminals (if any)

If the information on weight of goods specified on the customs system and documents presented by the declarant are different from those specified in other documents collected by the customs authority and there are signs of violations, the customs official will request the Manager of Branch of Customs to suspend releasing goods from the customs controlled area in accordance with regulations of law;

c.4) Record scanning results on the customs system or take actions against violations (if any).

2. During the storage of goods at air freight terminals

In case of change in status quo of packages, the declarant, trader and the customs authority shall comply with regulations in Clause 3, Article 3 Section I Part II of this Decision;

3. When goods are loaded into vehicles

a) The trader shall:

Within 1 hour after the airplane takes off, update the information on goods loaded into the outbound vehicle and send it to the customs authority in accordance with regulations in Appendix 2 of this Decision;

b) The customs authority shall:

Receive information on the goods removed from the air freight terminals from the trader’s system. If all of the goods are loaded into outbound vehicles, the customs official will confirm the export of goods in accordance with regulations of law.

Section 3. CUSTOMS SUPERVISION IN CASE OF CHANGE OF TERMINALS OF EXPORT CONTAINING EXPORTS THAT HAVE GONE THROUGH CUSTOMS CLEARANCE OR HAVE BEEN SENT TO CUSTOMS CONTROLLED AREAS TOTALLY OR PARTIALLY

Article 5. Request for changing terminals of export under management by a Branch of Customs by declarants

1. The customs declarant shall:

a) Declare adjustments to information on terminals of export in accordance with regulation in Article 20 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of Ministry of Finance;

b) Present the goods to the customs authority for supervision and inspection of status quo, custom sealing and sealing by the transporter (if any);

c) Provide the customs declaration No. or the UCR of goods for the trader;

d) Transport goods from the departure terminals to the arrival terminals and maintain status quo of goods during the transport in accordance with regulations and law.

2. The trader of departure air freight terminal shall:

a) Receive information on changing air freight terminals from the declarant. In case of consistency, allow goods to be removed from its terminals and send information on such changes to the customs authority.

In case of inconsistency, request the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions;

b) Inspect and compare the actual goods with information on the goods eligible for being released from the customs controlled areas from the customs system.

b.1) If the information is consistent, allow the removal of goods from its terminals;

b.2) If the information is inconsistent, request the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions; Update information of goods removed from their terminals on the customs system.

3. The trader of arrival air freight terminal shall:

a) Receive information on changing air freight terminals and goods from the declarant.

b) Inspect and compare the actual goods with information on the goods eligible for being sent to the customs controlled areas from the customs system. b.1) If the information is consistent, allow the sending of goods to its terminals; If the information is inconsistent, request the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions; Update information of goods sent to their terminals on the customs system.

4. The customs authority shall:

a) Comply with regulations in Point b Clause 3 Article 20 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance;

b) Inspect status quo of goods, custom sealing and sealing by the transporter (if any);

c) Provide information on goods eligible for being released from or sent to customs controlled area and send them to the trader’s system.

Article 6. Request for changing export border checkpoints or loading ports managed by 2 branches of customs by declarants

1. The customs declarant shall:

Comply with regulations in Point a Clause 2 Article 22 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance;

2. Each trader shall:

Inspect and compare information on the quantity and weight of bales of actual goods and those on the goods removed from the air freight terminals received from the customs system. If the information is consistent, allow the removal of goods from its terminals; If the information is inconsistent, request the declarant to contact the customs authority for solutions; Update information of goods removed from their terminals on the customs system.

3. The customs authority shall:

a) Comply with regulations in Point b Clause 2 Article 22 of the Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance;

b) Send information on the goods released from customs controlled areas to the trader’s system.

Section 4. REGULATIONS ON COOPERATION, INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND SYSTEM INCIDENTS

Article 7. Regulations on cooperation and information exchange

1. Cooperation

a) The trader shall:

a.1) Update and send information on the goods sent to or removed from air freight terminals in accordance with regulations in sections 1, 2 and 3 Part II of this Decision;

a.2) Retain information on goods that have completed procedures for removal from air freight terminals on the trader’s system for inspection, report, statistics, comparison and research at the request of customs authority;

a.3) Assign full time officials to cooperate with the customs authority

b) The customs authority shall:

b.1) Through the customs system, provide the trader with information on goods expected to be sent to air freight terminals or subject to cargo scanning (if any), changes in status of customs declarations (if any) and goods eligible for being sent to or released from customs controlled areas as prescribed by law;

b.2) Receive and process information provided and updated by traders on the system. If the goods have signs of violations, request the enterprise to take suitable measures for customs inspection and supervision, ensure the customs management and prevent the violations of law;

b.3) Assign full-time officials to receive and deal with arising problems if requested.

2. If the information cannot be exchanged between the customs system and trader’s system (incidents):

a) The trader shall:

a.1) Within 1 hour from the time of incident, send a written notification of the incidents to the customs authority for cooperation in dealing with the incidents and avoid the congestion of import and export and record the incidents in a logbook;

a.2) According to the list of goods eligible for being released from customs controlled area that has been certified by the customs authority, allow exports to be loaded into outbound vehicles and imports to be released from customs controlled areas;

a.3) Update information on the goods released from customs controlled areas immediately after the system incident is handled.

b) Responsibilities of customs authorities:

b.1) The General Department of Vietnam Customs shall assign the Help Desk to receive information on system incidents, provide instructions on and deal with such incidents in accordance with regulations and law;

b.2) The Manager of Department of Customs of Ha Noi City shall assign officials working in the Branch of Customs of Noi Bai international airport to receive information on and deal with incidents all days of a week to avoid the congestion of import and export and record the incidents in a logbook;

If the incident cannot be handled, the manager of Department of Customs of Ha Noi City shall make a record on condition, time and place of the incident and send a notification of incident to the Help Desk affiliated to the General Department of Vietnam Customs and follow its instructions;

b.3) If the incident only occurs on the trader’s system while the customs system still has information on the list of goods eligible for being released from custom controlled areas, customs officials will inspect information specified in the declaration of eligibility for being released from customs control areas on the customs system or from the Help Desk, print the list of goods eligible for being released from the customs controlled area and send it to the trader for permission of release of goods from the customs controlled area;

b.4) If there are incidents on the customs system, the Branch of Customs of Noi Bai international airport shall notify of such incidents in accordance with regulations in Point g, Clause 2 Article 25 of the Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP and go through customs procedures for releasing goods from the customs controlled area in accordance with regulations issued by the Director of General Department of Vietnam Customs;

b.5) When system incidents are handled, the custom authority shall request the trader to enter information on lists of goods removed from or sent to the air freight terminals during the period of incidents on the customs system. Customs authorities shall take responsibility for dealing with relevant problems arising from customs documents during the period of incident.

APPENDIX 1

INFORMATION PROVIDED FOR TRADERS OF PORTS, TERMINALS AND PARKING LOTS
(issued together with the Decision No. 2061/QD-BTC dated October 13, 2017 of the Minister of Finance)

1. List of information

2. Information to be declared

APPENDIX 2

INFORMATION PROVIDED FOR CUSTOMS AUTHORITIES BY TRADERS OF PORTS, TERMINALS AND PARKING LOTS
(issued together with the Decision No. 2061/QD-BTC dated October 13, 2017 of the Minister of Finance)

1. List of information to be declared

2. Information to be declared