Aiming to make customs procedures more public and transparent with less contact of customs officers and enterprises to limit corruption, Binh Duong Department of Customs from the beginning of 2016 has do researches to implement 37 online services including 6 services at level 4 (hardcopy submission totally eliminated for enterprises), and 31 services at level 3 (enterprises receive the processed documents at customs agencies).

Nguyen Phuoc Viet Dung, the Customs Director informed that on implementing Decree No. 19/NQ-CP dated March 12, 2015 of the government on major tasks and measures to improve business environment and enhance national competitive index in 2015-2016 and Decree No. 36a/NQ-CP dated October 14, 2015 of the government on electronic government, Binh Duong Department of Customs has demanded the units to share up hardship of enterprises to seek out measures for approving IT application. Binh Duong Department of Customs has established a team of researching and reviewing the professional processes by current regulations to list all administrative procedures of manual work. By the review, 37 professional procedures of manual work and physical meeting with customs agents have been named. Thus, the department has implemented online services for all these 37 procedures.

According to Binh Duong Department of Customs, currently, enterprises on implementing online services should only fulfill the online forms sent by customs agency. If the documents are eligible, the enterprise should be informed of the document approval. The enterprises can have their cargoes before document submission. If the documents are ineligible, the enterprise will be informed for revision of of the documents by the guidance for fulfillment. The reception and response will be in 2 to 3 minutes at the most to offer advantage to enterprises.

Department of Customs announces to put into practice 37 online public services

As the beneficiary of online services, To Gia Hao, the Production Manager of STEc in VSIP II informed that travelling time has been cut short thanks to the 37 online services. On implementing online services, the customs agencies have rapidly resolved documents for enterprises. The additional declaration, for instance, required compulsory documents related to the legitimate declared cargo batch; if the documents fail to comply, the process would be repeated, creating much cost for the enterprises. Currently, the online services have enabled declaration online with instant response regarding the legitimacy of the documents. Enterprises are allowed to fetch the cargo before fulfilling the documents. The feedbacks for amendments of documents have been optimized to take only 2 to 3 minutes.

Aside from the mentioned benefits, Hoang Ngoc Quang, a representative of Molenbergnatie Vietnam Co. Ltd. said that Department of Customs has implemented online services to create transparent environment of processing the documents as all the implementation procedures have been processed online. Besides, the intensified information technology application has enabled more professional resolution of documents of enterprises.

Comparing to before time, the implementation of online electronic public services, the customs sector has offered various benefits to the enterprises

Digitalized services needed

In fact, the services have been of benefits and time and cost saving for enterprises; however, the current regulations still require some on-paper procedures. Thus, the enterprises really wish for administrative services to be on digitalized environment. To Gia Hao informed that enterprises on implementing declaration of information on online public services have enclosed documents and digital signatures in accordance with Circular No. 39/2015/TT-BTC with requirements for photocopies of related documents for maintenance by the customs agencies. Thus, they are looking forward to the consideration for omission of hard-copy submission for online services to save time, costs and enable simplification of customs procedures, creating favorable investment environment. As for Hoang Ngoc Quang, he wishes that all customs procedures should be online with no requirements for visiting customs agencies for submission of related documents.

Regarding the recommendations of enterprises, Nguyen Phuoc Viet Dung, the Director of Department of Customs has recognized the services and has promised to continue with upgrading such services to facilitate paperwork of enterprises. Besides, Department of Customs has demanded its staffs to uphold the sense of responsibility in task implementation and practicing of 37 online services along with VNACCS/VCIS to facilitate faster customs clearance, bringing up the development and expansion of businesses of enterprise community in the province.

Reported by Dinh Ly – Translated by Vi Bao