Lang Son leaders works with Customs Department

(LSO) – Nguyen Cong Truong, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Lang Son province and head of provincial Steering Committee 389, on August 27 had a working session with the provincial Customs Department on the management of import-export goods, collection of import-export taxes and prevention of smuggling and trade fraud.

According to the department’s report at the working session, the volume of import-export goods through local border gates has been reducing.

The value of import-export activities through the province reached over 2,343 million USD during the period from the beginning of this year to date, a drop of 19.35 percent year on year.

However, import revenue of some good groups with high tax rose, resulting in an increase in tax collection from import-export activities compared to the same period last year. Collection reached nearly 2.34 trillion VND, representing over 83 percent of the set target.

Nguyen Cong Truong, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, addresses the working session.

Over the past months, the illegal trading and transport of goods through the border in Lang Son has continued to be complicated.

Particularly, the smuggling of goods with fake labels of Vietnamese brands and goods failing to meet food safety standards increased over 2018.

Together with other authorised agencies, the Customs Department has deployed measures to prevent the illegal trading and transportation of smuggled goods through the border.

In the first eight months of this year, the department inspected and detected 456 violation cases and handled 115 cases of smuggling and illegal transporting of goods through the border.

At the working session, leaders of the department and representatives from sub-departments at border gates pointed out their difficulties and obstacles during the process of managing goods import-export activities as well as preventing smuggling and trade fraud.

At the same time, representatives from some local departments and sectors gave some measures to promote import-export activities through the province.

Addressing the working session, the Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee lauded the efforts of the Customs Department in implementing tasks of managing import-export activities and tax collection.

Regarding the tasks for the future, he stressed that the department should pay further attention to the leadership and direction over offices and sub-departments under its management, while showing stronger performance in following administrative principles and rules during activities of agencies in border gates.

Alongside, the department should strengthen the inspection and supervision over its staff, thus preventing corruption, while continue coordinating with relevant agencies and calling for big firms to process import-export activities through local border gates.

The department should build detailed operation plans, avoiding congestion of goods at border gates, he asked, adding that the departments should strengthen smuggling and trade fraud prevention.

The provincial leaders also requested relevant agencies to better coordinate with customs agencies in preventing smuggling and other illegal activities in border and border gate areas.