VCN – Besides sanctions and collection of tax arrears to the state budget, the Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) Branch at Quang Ninh Customs has guided businesses on customs procedures and helped them improve their voluntary compliance with the law.
 |
| PCA officers of Quang Ninh Customs Department inspects documents. Photo provided by the PCA Branch. |
By the end of July, the PCA Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department) consulted with the Department’s leaders to conduct 25 PCAs and one unexpected specialized inspection at the enterprise’s headquarters. Through the inspection, the branch handled violations, imposed taxes and fines of more than VND8.1 billion; the detection rate reached 88.5%, or 55.5% in number of cases, 89.7% in revenue, up 28.4% in detection rate through inspection year-on-year.
It can be said that, amid the complicated situation of the pandemic in the first months of the year in Quang Ninh, the PCA Branch has taken the initiative, responsibility, and closely followed the directions and orientations of the General Department of Customs and Quang Ninh Customs Department to carry out tasks associated with practice and management requirements. To improve the efficiency of information collection and processing, and to strengthen the implementation of thematic PCAs by focusing on high-risk fields, businesses and industries.
It is worth noting that the branch developed a thematic audit plan, focusing on those with high risks and violations of the law in each period. For example, inspecting codes for high-risk items; inspecting value for high-value items (minerals, consumer goods); inspecting trade policies (tax-free goods and goods enjoying special preferential import tax rates under free trade agreements); imported goods subject two tax rates; imported used machinery and equipment; and goods exported to the US and India. Without inspections, the PCA work has ensured efficiency and quality.
Through thematic audits assigned by the General Department of Customs (in Official Letter 800/TCHQ-KTSTQ), the branch identified violations of three enterprises, collected tax arrears of VND 381 million. The main violations are false declaration of goods code, tax rate, customs value; violation of regulations on management of raw materials and preparation of final settlement reports for goods processed and manufactured for export. In addition to sanctioning administrative violations, collecting tax arrears to the state budget, the inspection teams have guided businesses on customs procedures and helped them improve their voluntary compliance with the law.
Speaking to the customs reporters, Manager of the PCA Branch Vu Quy Hung said that in order to improve the efficiency of information collection and processing, the unit has built a database for a five-year period (2017-2022) with more than 600,000 declarations, 2.5 million commodity streams and organized training for civil servants how to exploit and use the database; and strengthened the exchange, coordination, and provision of information to serve the PCA with subordinate and affiliated units.
“The information collection and processing and identification of risk signs is the first and very important stage of the PCA, if the information is accurate, the audit will be successful and effective,” said Mr. Vu Quy Hung.
In parallel with information collection and processing, the PCA Branch has also focused on training and retraining to improve professional knowledge for officials and civil servants. In addition to organizing discussions, the branch has assigned experienced cadres and civil servants to “coach” and guide other officers and develop PCA handbooks.
In the first seven months of the year, the branch organized three internal training courses, focusing on skills in collecting and processing information, sanctioning administrative violations and PCA work for export processing and production and export processing. In addition, the management and supervision of the audit teams at the enterprise’s headquarters also paid special attention by the branch’s leader to ensure the audit progress and efficiency as well as improve discipline and responsibility of customs officers, contributing to improving the District and Department Competitiveness Index (DDCI) of Quang Ninh Customs Department.
 | Quang Ninh: Accelerating import-export activities at industrial parks |
At the moment, customs officers of the PCA Branch are striving to achieve assigned targets and focus on advising, directing, inspecting, guiding and supporting the implementation of the postal audit at the branch level, as well as develop thematic inspection programs and plans in 2023.
By Quang Hung/ Huyen Trang