General Department of Customs directs management of imported goods traded via e-commerce

The General Department of Customs has just sent a document to the Customs Departments of provinces and cities directing to strengthen management of imported goods traded via e-commerce.

According to information from General Department of Customs, recently, imported goods traded through e-commerce increased sharply, many new e-commerce platforms appeared selling cheap goods in the Vietnamese market that have not registered to operate in Vietnam or have not been announced on the Ministry of Industry and Trade's e-commerce management system. This poses potential risks of importing counterfeit goods, fake goods, goods that violate intellectual property rights, poor quality goods, goods that do not meet import requirements or taking advantage of policies to evade taxes.

To ensure the requirements of state management, while the Decree on customs management of exported and imported goods traded via e-commerce has not been issued, on November 8, the General Department of Customs issued Document No. 5480/TCHQ-GSQL to the Directors of the Customs Departments of provinces and cities to thoroughly grasp and direct the units under the Department to strengthen the inspection, supervision and control of goods traded via e-commerce.

For the Customs Sub-Department at the import gate, it is necessary to fully and correctly implement the steps in the customs procedure, especially for shipments transported independently from the import gate to the collection, inspection and centralized supervision locations for postal and express delivery goods. In addition, customs procedures are not carried out for independent transport declarations.

When detecting goods with signs of law violations, the Customs Sub-department at the import gate shall conduct a physical inspection of the goods in accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015, amended and supplemented by Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance. The results of the physical inspection are recorded on the Inspection Result Record Form according to Form 06/PGKQKT/GSQL Appendix V issued with Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC and updated into the System or transfer information on signs of law violations of the shipment to the Customs Sub-department where the goods are transported to conduct an inspection to clearly identify the violation.

The General Department of Customs has just sent a document to the Customs Departments of provinces and cities to direct the strengthening of management of imported goods traded via e-commerce. Illustrative photo

For the Customs Branch managing the gathering location, centralized inspection and supervision of postal and express delivery goods, do not carry out customs procedures for import declarations. Strengthen the inspection and determination of customs value; strengthen the inspection and supervision of origin, source, intellectual property; strengthen the inspection and supervision of types and quantities to avoid taking advantage of e-commerce goods that are packaged tightly in individual packages and small bags to smuggle or illegally transport goods across the border.

Along with that, the General Department of Customs also requires units to focus on reviewing all warehouses rented by express delivery enterprises at the gathering, inspection and centralized supervision locations for postal and express delivery goods in operation. If the conditions for inspection, supervision and control by customs agencies are not maintained, report to competent authorities to terminate operations and revoke warehouse codes.

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