PILOT GUIDANCE OF E-CUSTOMS CLEARANCE FOR SEAGOING SHIPS
On May 13, 2011, the Ministry of Finance issued the Circular No. 64/2011/TT-BTC guiding the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 19/2011/QD-TTg of March 23, 2011, on the pilot acceptance of electronic cargo declarations and other relevant documents and pilot application of e-customs clearance for seagoing ships on entry and exit.
Accordingly, shipping companies/shipping agents send a notice of participation; for a ship which is co-operated by many shipping companies/shipping agents, the company/agent participating in the pilot application of e-customs procedures shall request co-operating companies/agents to create and send e-information.
In case a shipping company/shipping agent lacks sufficient details on the house bill of lading such as those on goods descriptions, consignor and consignee, the forwarding company that has issued such bill of lading shall create and send detailed information on the house bill of lading via electronic means to the e-Portal of the General Department of Customs according to a roadmap guided by the General Department of Customs.
District-level border-gate Customs Departments which carry out procedures for ships on entry shall check, synthesize and analyze customs declaration information available on the system. In particular, if customs declaration information is lawful and reliable, customs offices shall effect customs clearance for ships under Article 9 of this Circular; if detecting any signs of violation of the customs law and other relevant laws, customs offices shall coordinate with port authorities and other functional agencies in handling violators according to Clause 3, Article 51 of the Customs Law.
After the ship anchors at a safe place designated by the port authority and all entry procedures with other management agencies are completed, the shipping company/shipping agent shall send a notice of ship arrival via electronic means to the district-level Customs Department which has carried out procedures for the ship. The time for sending a notice of ship arrival shall be determined to be the time when imports carried on board the ship arrive at a Vietnamese border gate, to serve the implementation of relevant management policies.
This Circular takes effect on June 28, 2011.