Domestication of Standards Related to Electronic Customs Procedures in Order of Priority

3.3.2. Internalize standards related to electronic customs procedures in order of priority

Through the pilot implementation of e-customs in Vietnam, it has been shown that the number of standards that need to be applied is too large and spread out while the general regulations on customs operations are not consistent with traditional customs procedures, and solutions for implementing standards have not been fully and promptly prepared. Therefore, to ensure the consistency of normative documents, the practical effectiveness of standards in general as well as to ensure the success of the e-customs program in the coming time, the internalization of standards needs to ensure consistency, modernity and effective law enforcement to focus on investing resources in implementing the following standards:

 Regulations to increase the automation of the system: The automation of the electronic customs system depends most on 3 systems: the customs clearance system, the risk management system, and the automatic tax calculation and collection system. The content of the regulations does not focus on the technical content of the system but includes regulations on the mechanism of operation, updating, use and information management of the systems so that they are flexible enough, adaptable to changes in technology and ensure the connection and integration of automatic processing systems with each other. The standards related to the construction and management of these systems include:

- Automatic clearance:

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• Improving the Quality of Administrative Procedures and Strengthening the Direction and Management of the Heads of State Administrative Agencies at the Ministry Level
• Cases Where Civil Court Fees Are Not Required or Exempted and Related Procedures
• Research Works Related to the Use of Electronic Evidence

+ Pre-declaration and pre-clearance: Allows businesses to present goods records and information as required by Customs and relevant agencies at the border gate before the goods arrive.

+ Clearance with minimal or no documentation thereby allowing clearance with air waybill or through X-ray examination with little supporting information for low risk goods and documents.

+ Consolidated customs clearance for multiple low-risk shipments.

+ Review, improve and redesign customs clearance processes and procedures and develop technology-based customs clearance processes to minimize data entry at many stages by officials and civil servants.

+ In addition, for this standard to be most effective, the Customs Law as well as its guiding documents need to separate cargo release from customs clearance, using international standards on customs clearance and cargo release in the General Annex, Revised Kyoto Convention to serve the fast customs clearance process.

- Automatic tax calculation and payment:

+ Build and automate the lookup, update, reference... of commodity lists and tariff schedules according to the HS Convention, and document forms based on the United Nations document template set.

+ Allows customs duties to be paid within a certain period from the date of import or customs clearance of the shipment, thereby supporting the concept of deferred payment and pre-tax clearance.

+ Allows for one-time monthly tax payments. This lays the foundation for the use of monthly consolidated revenue reports to further reduce the number and cost of banking transactions.

+ Allows for periodic tax refunds and tax payment grace periods and a separate consolidated tax collection account for each customer, created once and used for multiple transactions.

+ Regulations on implementing automatic tax, fee and other collection payment services through the commercial banking system.

- Automatic origin determination;

- QLRR: QLRR is an important pillar of implementing e-Government. Regulations and implementation of this content need to be consistent in both electronic and traditional environments:

+ Regulations on principles and basic contents of QLRR aim to ensure legal validity for widely recognized customs management methods and serve as the basis for regulations related to exemption of liability for officers and civil servants working in the QLRR environment.

+ Mechanism for exchanging and sharing information between Customs and relevant agencies and organizations (especially between Customs - Trade - Transport - Banking - Treasury) with the goal of enriching the database on customs risk management. Exchange electronic data with carriers, port authorities, agents and licensing agencies to receive information on goods and passengers before the means of transport enter the country to ensure timely information for business operations and customs clearance of goods.

+ Exemption from liability for customs officers working in the QLRR environment.

+ Measures to enhance the capacity of the risk management process, especially training staff in charge of information collection and processing.

 Regulations on electronic transactions in the customs sector:

- Regulations on the recognition of legal value of customs documents in electronic form.

- Unify, simplify and harmonize information indicators in both electronic and paper documents to ensure consistency in regulations and ensure technical requirements of electronic documents to adjust both written and electronic documents to adapt to the electronic version of customs operations in customs law, ensuring that customs officers have appropriate legal authority to work in the electronic environment.

For trade-related documents under the management authority of many different agencies (Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transport, etc.), in the immediate future, it is necessary to connect with the implementation of the Single Window Mechanism according to the Agreement.

and the Protocol on the Development and Implementation of the ASEAN Single Window and the results of Project 30 on the Simplification of Administrative Procedures to simplify and apply e-commerce documents (including documents in customs dossiers), ensure the simplification of procedures and mutual recognition between state agencies on the legal value of forms, electronic documents and electronic signatures as well as to connect, exchange and cross-reference relevant information between automated systems of state agencies. For this content, it is necessary to depend on the implementation roadmap of the above 02 programs to select a number of simple documents for non-taxable goods and not to go through the control process.

- Reduce requirements for physical signatures, stamps or seals on customs declarations.

- Customs computerization systems: In an e-Customs environment, other parties can directly and indirectly access the customs computerization environment, so customs must be obliged to ensure that the environment is safe and not abused for illegal purposes. Therefore, new legal provisions are needed to include this content:

+ Regulations on the authority of the General Director of Customs to build, manage and develop customs information systems.

+ Regulations on decentralization of access to customs information systems for officials, civil servants and enterprises.

+ Regulations on maintaining, protecting the system, and securing information in the system.

+ Regulations on providing public services of Customs to enterprises, fees for using public services of Customs such as fees for quickly downloading documents, forms, usage fees, etc.

+ Regulations on the obligation of enterprises to keep business books and present them to customs authorities for inspection and the right of access and inspection by customs authorities.

Customs authorities for business books including the business's electronic bookkeeping system kept on computers or on computer-copyable media.

+ Guidance on the Law on Electronic Transactions and related documents on digital signatures in electronic transactions in the customs sector, flexible handling measures in case of transition from electronic customs procedures to traditional customs procedures and vice versa, on the legal value of documents printed from the enterprise's electronic customs declaration system, on electronic tax collection and payment,...

 Group of regulations to motivate partners to participate in TTHQĐT

- Customs-business partnership: Promote the implementation of a group of standards on customs-business partnership and customs relations with third parties, with special attention paid to organizing joint cooperation programs to promote and coordinate in the development and implementation of customs management techniques and procedures, while implementing a more effective information exchange and provision mechanism.

- Support and improve the system of agents doing customs procedures.

- Enterprises prioritize following the standards of the General Annex of the Revised Kyoto Convention and the SAFE Framework of Standards.

3.3.3. Building human resources in the customs procedure environment

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A modern customs management system must be accompanied by competent human resources.

Human resources management and development policies are the most important factors determining the success of administrative reform in the Customs sector.

Personnel work always plays an important role in the modernization process in general and in the construction and implementation of administrative procedure reform in the Customs sector in particular. When implementing administrative procedure reform, in order to create motivation and mobilize

In order to have customs officers and civil servants who are both enthusiastic about the new management method and have experience, professional knowledge and related skills, in the use and management of human resources, it is necessary to prioritize the implementation of 3 contents:

First, build a mechanism for using human resources.

 Develop a Job Title Description to clearly define the duties and responsibilities of civil servants in each step of the process, while also helping to identify and visualize the tasks to be done, helping civil servants quickly become familiar with the work:

 Describe the jobs and titles for each job;

 Build capacity profiles for each job title;

 Determine the practical capacity gap of civil servants based on the capacity profile of each job title.

 Initially, when the civil service team is still small and their qualifications are not yet specialized, it is necessary to orient:

 Use experienced officers with deep expertise from units under the General Department and local Customs Departments under the expert regime (ready to transfer officers, pay expert salaries, arrange accommodation, means of transport... for local officers to work at the General Department);

 Use outside experts for some jobs that require well-trained experts with experience and in-depth knowledge, broad understanding, research, synthesis, analysis, foreign language and IT skills that the Customs sector cannot meet under the specialized outsourcing regime;

 Use the above 2 teams of experts to train, guide, transfer results and experience to young staff.

 Build a work performance management system, evaluate work performance based on actual work performance:

 Evaluate task performance;

 Reward and prioritize in arrangement, use, mobilization, rotation, planning and appointment of cadres who complete their tasks;

 Handling, arranging and using cadres who do not complete their tasks.

Second, there is a policy of human resource training.

 Regarding training requirements: Determine training requirements based on job title descriptions and based on surveys and assessments of the current status of staff, civil servants and training content orientation for different subjects, specifically:

 Training the ability to work and think independently to be able to make proposals and initiatives related to the implementation stage for the policy making team;

 Provide specialized training such as IT, using procedures, operations, skills, and legal knowledge for civil servants;

 Basic training and propaganda on modernization in general and on e-government in particular.

 About training methods:

 Direct training through work or under the guidance of industry and non-industry experts, domestic experts and foreign experts;

 Training through seminars and specialized research on basic contents of modernization and customs procedures;

 Short-term or medium-term concentrated training for specialized operations.

Third, there are preferential policies.

To be able to attract dedicated staff with experience and in-depth knowledge to work long-term on modernization work, including:

Reforming administrative procedures, especially for IT staff - this is the core team when applying IT to new customs procedures, it is necessary to have appropriate attraction policies, specifically:

 Pay salary based on performance evaluation;

 Payment of modernization allowances and IT allowances for cadres and civil servants;

 Priority in special training of IT knowledge and skills, priority in mobilization and rotation.

3.4. Solutions to implement the national one-stop mechanism associated with administrative procedure reform

To implement the national single window mechanism, the Customs sector must carry out major activities such as (1) Standardizing and harmonizing procedural processes; (2) Standardizing and harmonizing information and document requirements; (3) Designing information systems and building technical infrastructure; (4) Building legal basis and implementation mechanism; (5) Training and propaganda; (6) Evaluating and analyzing implementation effectiveness; (7) Organizing implementation. In which, activities (1) and (2) are closely related to administrative procedure reform not only in the Customs sector but also related to a number of Ministries and Branches for import and export activities.

3.4.1. Standardization and harmonization of procedures

This is the process of reviewing and evaluating the operating procedures of the parties involved in one or more types of transactions to find out the repetitions, the inconsistent understandings of the same issue, the issues of the same nature but with different names, the unreasonable points or unnecessary arising due to the overlap, lack of information exchange or lack of synchronization of administrative procedures. Once the above shortcomings are found, people will rearrange the steps of the procedural process in a more reasonable way (redesign the process), give a single understanding and definition for an issue (standardization) and eliminate repetitive content.