From the beginning of the year to the end of May 2023, the State budget revenue of Thanh Hoa Provincial Customs Department reached more than 7.2 trillion VND, equal to 53.3% of the target assigned by the Ministry of Finance, but compared to the same period in 2022, it was only 88%. This decrease was predicted and is inevitable. Meanwhile, according to the plan, Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant will temporarily stop operating to perform the first major maintenance according to the design in August this year, meaning a decrease in crude oil import turnover and a decrease in budget revenue. Faced with this situation, Thanh Hoa Customs Department has been synchronously implementing many practical solutions to ensure the completion of the revenue target for the year.
Of the above revenue sources, revenue from imported and exported goods through Nghi Son seaport (registered declarations at Nghi Son port Customs Branch) reached nearly 7.12 trillion VND. Of which, revenue from crude oil imports serving Nghi Son Petrochemical Refinery accounted for the majority with 5.84 trillion VND. Specifically, from the beginning of the year to May 31, Thanh Hoa Customs Department completed procedures to import 15 shipments of crude oil, with revenue for each shipment being 390 billion VND. The remaining revenue mainly came from imported goods serving production of projects in Nghi Son Economic Zone, such as: scrap iron, steel, coal, chemicals, petrochemical refining additives, palm oil, etc.
The direct cause of the decline in budget revenue from import-export activities is determined to be due to unpredictable fluctuations in the world economic and political situation in 2023, such as: Russia-Ukraine armed conflict, epidemics, high inflation, falling oil prices, low consumption demand in some important markets such as the US, EU... have negatively affected the production and business activities of many enterprises. Information from the Thanh Hoa Customs Department shows that many enterprises have not received orders in the third and fourth quarters of 2023, so they are forced to cut production output or limit the import of raw materials.
In this context, since the beginning of the year, the Provincial Customs Department has made efforts to deploy and synchronously implement solutions to facilitate trade activities, such as strengthening customs-business dialogue to promptly grasp and resolve problems arising from import-export and immigration activities of enterprises. At the same time, ensure that the e-customs environment is operated smoothly; increase the number of administrative procedures performed on the customs online public service system, ensuring that most administrative procedures at the Customs Sub-Department level are provided with services at level 4. By the end of May 2023, the department had cleared more than 48,000 import-export declarations, an increase of 5.1% over the same period in 2022; cleared 680 declarations of sea transport vehicles; resolved more than 400 administrative procedures via the customs online public service system, an increase of 12% over the same period in 2022...
However, due to the difficulties businesses face in finding new export markets when consumer demand in important markets such as the US and EU has decreased sharply, export turnover has decreased by 9.8% compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 1.44 billion USD. Import turnover also decreased by 2.3% compared to the same period last year, reaching 3.45 billion USD. Of which, crude oil turnover decreased by 15%. The main reason was determined to be that the prices of some major imported goods such as crude oil, scrap iron and steel, refined palm oil, etc. have all decreased compared to the same period.
Thanh Hoa Customs Department forecasts that in the coming time, import-export trade activities will still face many difficulties, especially for the garment, footwear and industrial export products industries. In addition, the continued decline in steel production raw material prices and the first maintenance plan according to the design of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant will also cause import turnover in 2023 to decrease compared to the same period in 2022. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the time Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant stops operating for maintenance for 1 month will reduce 3 imported crude oil shipments, and the estimated budget revenue will also decrease by more than 1,000 billion VND. However, the maintenance of the plant often depends on many factors and the time may be longer than expected. In this direction, the budget revenue target of the provincial Customs Department in 2023 of 13.85 trillion VND will face difficulties.
According to Mr. Le Xuan Cuong, Deputy Director of the Provincial Customs Department, in the immediate future, the department has proposed the Provincial People's Committee and relevant functional agencies to provide maximum support for Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant to complete maintenance as planned. At the same time, continue to promote the overall program of State administrative reform for the period 2021-2030; enhance the application of information technology in the management and operation activities of the unit, promptly approach and deploy the smart customs model, digital customs, ensuring maximum facilitation for import and export activities...
Along with focusing on improving the effectiveness of State management as a solution to prevent loss of State budget revenue, the Provincial Customs Department has been promoting propaganda to enterprises about mechanisms and policies according to Resolution No. 37/2021/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Thanh Hoa province; Resolution No. 248/2022/NQ-HDND of the Provincial People's Council on promulgating policies to support international and domestic sea transport vehicles; supporting enterprises transporting goods by container through Nghi Son port to contribute to attracting enterprises to carry out customs procedures in the province, increasing budget revenue sources. In particular, promoting the work of calling on shipping lines and enterprises operating import and export activities to diversify international and domestic container routes through Nghi Son port. Call on and encourage large enterprises headquartered in the province and neighboring provinces, especially automobile, leather shoe, and scrap manufacturing corporations with large demand for importing production materials and high annual budget revenue to import and export goods through Nghi Son port...
Article and photos: Do Duc
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