Official Dispatch No. 2733/TCHQ-GSQL dated March 31, 2015, guidelines for some contents of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC

To: Customs Departments of provinces

Pursuant to Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance on customs procedures, customs supervision and inspection, export tax, import tax, and tax administration applied to exported and imported goods, which comes into force from April 01, 2015, the General Department of Customs hereby provides some guidelines as follows:

1. Inspection of exported and imported goods being handled, transported, stored at warehouses, depots, ports, or border checkpoint areas

The General Department of Customs is currently completing the functions of customs electronic data processing system to satisfy the selection of exported or imported goods that need inspecting while they are handled, transported, stored at a warehouse, depot, port, or border checkpoint area; recording and updating inspection results when the declarant officially registers the customs declaration of the scanned goods.

Besides, the General Department of Customs also review and rearrange the system of container scanners to serve inspection of exported and imported goods while they are handled, transported, stored at a warehouse, depot, port, or border checkpoint area.

After the System is completed, the General Department of Customs will announce the time of official inspection of exported and imported goods while they are handled, transported, stored at a warehouse, depot, port, or border checkpoint area.

2. Inspection of documents in customs dossiers submitted by declarants

According to the method of submitting documents of the customs dossier prescribed in Clause 2 Article 3 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTCthe customs official shall examine the dossier as follows:

a) Where the dossier is submitted electronically

While the General Department of Customs is completing the document receipt function of e-customs system, if the declarant uses HYS service on VNACCS to send documents of the customs dossier to the customs authority, the customs official shall access documents of the customs dossier on VNACCS (using IHY and MSC services) according to corresponding information on the export/import declaration.

The Sub-department of Customs shall examine the customs dossier according to the documents accessed and printed. If additional documents must be included in the customs dossier, the customs official shall notify the declarant with “Customs directive” using IDA01/EDA01 code A.

After inspection, both hard copy and soft copy of documents shall be stored to perform next tasks (if any).

b) Where paper documents are submitted

If the declarant submits paper documents of the customs dossier directly to the Sub-department of Customs where the declaration is registered, the customs official shall receive them and examine the dossier according to applicable regulations.

3. Physical inspection of goods

Physical inspection of goods shall be carried out in accordance with Article 29 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC  After physical inspection, the customs official shall write the inspection result on form No. 06/PGKQKT/GSQL (Appendix V of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC) and update corresponding information on the system. The result sheet shall be made into 01 copy which bears the signature of the declarant, and the certification date, and be kept by the customs authority.

Physical inspection of goods at the request of the Sub-department of Customs where the customs declaration is registered shall be carried out in accordance with Clause 11, Article 29 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC

4. Customs procedures applied to goods imported to serve processing, manufacturing of exported products

a) According to Section 6, Chapter III of Decree No. 08/2015/NĐ-CP dated January 21, 2015 and Chapter III of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance, customs authority shall not request the declarant to follow the procedures below:

a.1) procedures for notification, receipt of the processing contract or appendices thereof;

a.2) procedures for notification, receipt, and adjustment of the rate of processing of manufacturing of exported products;

a.3) Procedures for notification, receipt of codes of materials, supplies, and exported products; the codes of materials, supplies, and exported products are not required to be declared on the customs declaration;

a.4) Procedures for approving the proposed solution for settlement of raw materials, supplies, leased/borrowed machinery and equipment shall be followed as directed by the procuring party when the processing contract is completed or expires;

b) The statement shall be made in accordance with Article 60 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC

Notes:

b.1) Export processing companies are not required to submit the statement of Q1/2015.

b.2) With regard to processing contracts that have been notified to the customs authority and customs declarations of goods imported for manufacturing exported products registered before April 01, 2015 (the effective date of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC) the statements shall be made and submitted in accordance with Article 60 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC.

c) Customs Departments of provinces shall request their Sub-departments of Customs to instruct taxpayers engaged in processing, import of raw materials for manufacturing exported products, and export processing companies to make and retain accounting documents in accordance with regulations on accounting, audit of the Ministry of Finance, and the rules in Article 60 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTCForm No. 15/BCQT/GSQL in Appendix V enclosed with Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC shall be used to report raw materials, supplies, and exported products in stock in the beginning of the period.