Official Dispatch No. 6889/TCHQ-GSQL dated November 23, 2018 of the General Department of Customs on e-manifest declaration and inspection

THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

THE GENERAL DEPARTMENT OF CUSTOMS

Official Dispatch No. 6889/TCHQ-GSQL dated November 23, 2018 of the General Department of Customs on e-manifest declaration and inspection

To:    - Customs Departments of provinces;

- Shipping companies, shipping agents, forwarders.

Pursuant to the Government s Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP dated April 20, 2018 of the Government on providing specific provisions and guidance on enforcement of the customs law on customs procedures, inspection, supervision and control procedures and Circular No. 50/2018/TT-BTC dated May 23, 2018; the General Department of Customs finds that certain information on the e-manifests are not correctly provided by shipping companies, shipping agents and forwarders. This obstructs the declarants (owners of imports) from receiving their goods at the port or warehouse and customs management.  Furthermore, some shipping companies, shipping agents and forwarders have failed to declare the correct name or information of the waste carried by the ship upon its entry. This obstructs customs management and monitoring of waste imports.

On September 17, 2018, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 27/CT-TTg on enhancement of management of waste imports and use thereof for production. The General Department of Customs hereby request Customs Departments of provinces to carry out inspection and instruct shipping companies, shipping agents and forwarders to declare information about the vehicles, exports and imports on the e-manifest system as follows:

1. Name of the "consignee" or "notify party" (or "notification party"):

1.1. Information about the enterprise must be declared in the following order: tax code#name of enterprise#address.

For waste imports: Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 27/CT-TTg, the declarant shall complete the certification of environmental safety of waste imports used as materials for production (hereinafter referred to as “environmental safety certification”) and number of the deposit slip in the following order: tax code#number of environmental safety certification#number of deposit slip#name of enterprise#address.

1.2. There is a sharp symbol (#) between the pieces of information. Information about the enterprise shall be declared as follows:

a) Information about the “consignee”:

a.1. Tax code:

Tax code is an uninterrupted series of digits without special characters (space, .,-)/\(=!“%&*; <>@&|?:+‘’`~...).

a.2. The environmental safety certification is issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment or the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and still effective. The number of the environmental safety certification is an uninterrupted series of 10 characters, except special characters.

a.3. Number of the deposit slip:

The deposit slip must be issued by a bank or a competent organization. The deposit slip number is an uninterrupted series of characters, except special characters.

a.4. The enterprise’s name is the name of the enterprise registered under the importer’s name under the same tax code.

In case of waste imports, the enterprise’s name must match the tax code and the enterprise’s name written on the environmental safety certification and deposit slip.

a.5. Other information such as phone number, email address, etc. shall be declared after the aforementioned information and separated by a sharp (#).

1.3. Examples:

- Example 1: 3500813231#48/GXN-BTNMT#44/VCB-IKI#Công ty cổ phần Giấy Sài Gòn#Dịa chỉ Khu công nghiệp Mỹ Xuân A, xã Mỹ Xuân, huyện Tân Thành, tỉnh Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu.

- Example 2: 5700557606#04/GXN-BTNMT#15/XN-BIDVDHN#POLYESTER FIBER VIETNAM CO., LTD#CAILAN INDUSTRIAL ZONE HALONG CITY QUANG NINH.

b) Information about the "notify party" or "notification party":

If what is written in "notify party" or "notification party" is "To order" or "To order of...", follow instructions in 1.1 and 1.2.a .

2. HS codes:

HS codes shall be written in “Mã hàng/ HS code” of the manifest and bill of lading. A HS code is an interrupted series of not fewer than 4 digits. A HS code must not be written in the same section as goods name and description (“Tên hàng, mô tả hàng hóa”).

For waste imports: pursuant to the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 27/CT-TTg, HS codes are mandatory and shall be declared in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 73/2014/QD-TTg dated December 19, 2014. 8-digit HS codes shall be declared in accordance with the Appendix hereof.

3. Goods name and description:

Goods names and descriptions declared by shipping companies, shipping agents and forwards are usually long and unnecessary but unspecific. The General Department of Customs recommends that Customs Departments instruct declarants to declare their goods as follows:

3.1. Goods name and description:

a) Order of declaration: The goods name and description should be short and follow this order: name#description.

b) There must be a sharp (#) between the pieces of information. To be specific:

b.1. Goods name:

The goods name declared on the e-manifest system is the name that matches the HS code of the goods.

For waste imports on the list promulgated together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 73/2014/QD-TTg, their names shall be correctly declared on the e-manifest system as instructed in column 6 or 7 in the Appendix hereof.

b.4. Goods description:

Do not provide unnecessary and irrelevant information about the goods. The goods description should be short and describe the goods properties, package contents, number of packages, weight, etc.

3.2. Examples:

Example : Giấy phế liệu#20 BAG(S)

Example 2: PLASTIC WASTE#44 PKG#176 PACKAGE

4. Code and name of port:

a) In the general manifest:

In “Brief particulars of voyage” (“Dặc điểm chính của chuyến đi”), specify the code and name of the port.

Examples:

- Original port of loading: NLRTM - ROTTERDAM.

- Port: NLRTM - ROTTERDAM.

- Port of call: SGSIN - SINGAPORE.

- Port of discharge: VNCMT - VUNG TAU CMIT.

- Port of destination: VNCLI - TPHCM CATLAI.

b) In the manifest and bill of lading:

The port of delivery/port of destination, port of loading, original port of loading and port of discharge must be specified.  In case the ship moves from one port to another, the port of transit must be specified.

The codes of ports must be consistently declared and match the codes posted on National Single-window Information Portal and the website of the General Department of Customs.

Example: VNHPN - CANG TAN VU, VNDVU - CANG DINH VU...

5. Manifest inspection:

a) Customs Departments shall receive and inspect the e-manifests submitted by shipping companies, shipping agents and forwarders according to the instructions above, etc.

In the cases where a customs dossier is not complete and the waste imports are not declared as instructed above, it will be rejected and the declarant will be requested to submit an additional declaration through National Single-window Information Portal in accordance with Article 67 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP, which is amended in Clause 38 Article 1 of Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP.

Customs procedures will be suspended if a customs dossier is not submitted by the deadline specified in Article 66 of Decree No. 08/2015/ND-CP, which is amended in Clause 37 Article 1 of Decree No. 59/2018/ND-CP, in which case the shipping company, shipping agent or forwarder will also incur an administrative penalty and has to provide additional documents or information as prescribed.

b) In case of waste imports, Customs Departments shall instruct shipping companies, shipping agents and forwarders to follow the instructions above, instructions in Official Dispatch No. 13151/BTC-TCHQ dated October 26, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance on suspension of unloading of wastes that are not qualified for import.

For your information and compliance./.

For the Director General

The Deputy Director

Mai Xuan Thanh

APPENDIX

NAMES OF WASTES AND CORRESPONDING NAMES TO BE DECLARED ON E-MANIFESTS
(Promulgated together with Official Dispatch No. 6889/TCHQ-GSQL dated November 23, 2018 of the General Department of Customs)