Lang Son Customs Department, said that in the third quarter of 2021, Lang Son Customs detected a number of import and export enterprises cheating on origin, illegally transporting goods across the border. In which, 3 enterprises falsely declared the origin of goods imported through Huu Nghi international border gate and were handled according to regulations. The violations of these enterprises are mainly imported goods from China, but declared origin made in Japan, Germany, Mexico, India, USA; declare false indications on legal status, protection of industrial property rights...

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong - Deputy Director of the Customs Department of Lang Son province, commercial fraud to illegally transport goods through customs declaration has quite complicated developments. In particular, the status of false declaration of origin for profiteering and tax evasion is causing many difficulties for the inspection and handling by authorities, including the Customs sector.

The Post-Clearance Inspection Department (under the General Department of Customs) said that following the direction of the General Department of Customs on strengthening post-clearance inspection to combat origin fraud and illegal transshipment in 2021, the Department has increased the collection and analysis of information, developed a centralized inspection plan for goods exported to the US, EU and Indian markets... From the beginning of the year until now, through the inspection work. After inspection, the Post-Clearance Inspection Department has handled many enterprises violating the origin of goods.

Customs physical inspection of goods. Illustration

Specifically, in September 2021, conducting thematic inspection for exported cashew nuts, the Post-Clearance Inspection Department discovered 18 cases with many signs of violations. In which, there were detected enterprises that cheated on the origin of pure Vietnamese cashew nuts when exporting and handled 2 enterprises. Detecting 4 other enterprises operating in the form of export production with suspicion of selling for domestic consumption, upon inspection, the enterprise does not have a head office, no longer operates at the place of business registration, customs The agency has transferred the case information to the police agency to continue verifying and clarifying signs of violations.

According to the plan, in the coming time, the General Department of Customs will continue to direct functional units to continue checking enterprises with signs of origin fraud and illegal transshipment. In particular, focus on inspecting and examining enterprises whose goods are exported to the US, EU and Indian markets using imported raw materials.

However, the representative of the General Department of Customs said that the handling of violations related to origin fraud and illegal transshipment in practice still faces many difficulties because the current legal regulations are not clear. It is not yet specific what goods are of Vietnamese origin. Decree 128/2020/ND-CP stipulating the sanction of administrative violations in the field of customs has been effective since the end of 2020, regulating the handling of acts of forgery of origin with very heavy sanctions, but reality cannot be handled. The reason is that there are still no specific regulations, unifying how to understand what is "forgery of origin", so when handling, it has led to disputes and complaints from the violators.

In order to improve the effectiveness of preventing fraud, forgery of origin, and illegal transshipment of imported and exported goods, the General Department of Customs said that the Government needs a new Decree amending and supplementing inadequate regulations. current regulations in the direction of clear and specific regulations on what goods are of Vietnamese origin, how to label them, what are "forged origin" goods, etc. Amendment and supplementation of regulations In the current relevant legal documents, there are still shortcomings on this issue, ensuring that there are strong enough sanctions to strictly handle origin fraud and illegal transshipment of goods; strengthen the inspection, examination and supervision by the Ministries and functional branches for organizations issuing certificates of origin in order to promptly correct the issuance of documents not in accordance with regulations; enhanced tracking,