Electronic customs system down for 16 hours

The electronic customs data processing system had a problem since 5:00 p.m. on August 6, and has now been resolved after 16 hours of disruption.

Mr. Hoan, an employee of an import-export company in Tan Binh District, said he was preparing documents to import food shipments for a company in Ho Chi Minh City but the system had an error. For the past two days, he has been on duty at the port so that when the system is operational, he can ask customs for early support.

"I import goods so all declarations this afternoon are almost closed, the customs office temporarily prioritizes export goods," said Mr. Hoan.

A representative of a delivery company in District 4 (HCMC) said that they had sent many employees to the scene to handle the customer's case but still could not complete all the work for the day.

"We are urgently processing for customers, but since morning the system connecting to customs has been down, so we can only wait for processing at the port. Therefore, there are still goods stuck and cannot be cleared today," said a representative of the above company.

Many businesses said that because they had to process paper declarations, many agents in the provinces had to go to large ports in the city to complete the procedures. Customs officers tried very hard but they could only advise waiting for the network to be back online.

Ms. Ngoc Han, an employee in charge of customs clearance procedures at a domestic logistics company headquartered in Phu Nhuan District (HCMC), said that the system was announced to have been restored since the afternoon of August 6, but in reality, only certain features were working again and it was very unstable. "By the end of this afternoon, I was able to complete customs declarations, but the connection was intermittent, and I could not upload documents," she said.

On the afternoon of August 7, the General Department of Customs confirmed the system interruption and said it had been restored since 8:35 this morning. Up to now, operations have gradually stabilized after 16 hours of interruption.

According to this agency, from the time the system encountered a problem until it was fixed, all procedures were resolved promptly. At the same time, the General Department of Customs also had technical and professional measures to fix the problem.

The agency requested the Customs Branches to stop performing manual declaration procedures, the measure used during the incident. The units updated additional information about goods passing through the surveillance area on the system.

At ports, warehouses, and locations connected to the VASSCM system, the General Department of Customs requires businesses to check and compare information on goods that have passed through the surveillance area. Units compile a list of export shipments that have been brought into the customs surveillance area to be loaded onto vehicles for exit and import shipments that have been taken out of the customs surveillance area.

According to Mr. Tran Viet Huy, Head of the Customs and Trade Facilitation Department (Vietnam Logistics Business Association - VLA), 90% of customs procedures are processed electronically. Therefore, when there is an incident, the customs authority applying manual paper procedures will only solve the problem at the customs stage, but will still be stuck at other stages.

"Procedures will involve many departments and agencies. A one-stop shop will cause congestion and most of the procedures will be delayed," said Mr. Huy.

The full extent of the damage has not been calculated, but according to Mr. Huy, businesses will face the risk of additional storage costs, estimated at about 12-15 USD per day for a 20-foot container. In addition, businesses also face the risk of missing ships, missed trips, and transportation costs due to scheduling but ships not being able to arrive.

He added that the customs system was built in 2014. After 10 years, import and export turnover has increased significantly. Therefore, he said that the authorities need to upgrade the new system and have a backup plan for cases of overload or cyber attacks.

The VNACCS/VCIS automated customs clearance system is the core and most important information technology system of the General Department of Customs. This system is provided by the Japanese Government with non-refundable aid and has been deployed since April 2014.

In 2020, the General Department of Customs said it was developing a project to redesign the entire industry's information technology system. This is to meet application requirements and overcome limitations.

In another report in 2022, the customs authority said that from 2014 to that time, they had to build and maintain about 20 additional satellite systems operating in parallel. However, due to the lack of synchronous design, the industry's system had weak connectivity, making it difficult to integrate functions and provide data. Not to mention, at peak times, the system often experienced local congestion, overloaded and unable to process data, causing customs clearance time to be extended. The functions supporting customs exploitation and management were also assessed as not meeting current business requirements. Meanwhile, the hardware equipment was outdated, and there were no similar types to replace it. They also did not have a backup system, so problems could occur at any time.

Source