The Customs to increase online surveillance to prevent the smuggling goods

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• Customs goods

Being on duty online and online surveillance serves not only the steering and management of the leadership of the General Department of Customs but also the customs checking and identification of the key point, “unmasking” many. 

The Customs officers are on duty and supervise online at the General Department of Customs. Photo: Q.Hung.

Being on duty online and supervising online are carried out at the Online Customs Supervision Department located at the head office of the General Department of Customs (established under Decision 1658/QD-BTC dated August 17th, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance). Every day, the representatives of professional units under the General Department of Customs are on duty and supervise online in shifts, including: the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Bureau, the Import-Export Tax Bureau, the Post-Customs Clearance Inspection Bureau, the Risk Management Bureau, the Customs Verification Bureau, the Customs Supervision and Management Bureau, the General Customs Office.

As noted by the reporters of the Customs News on the afternoon of June 27th, being on duty and supervising online including the officials and employees of the Customs Verification Bureau and the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Bureau are implemented strictly. From the surveillance camera system installed in seaports, airports, the mobile surveillance command vehicles, detailed images of goods, passengers on entrance and exit… were be transmitted to the General Department of Customs instantly and smoothly. All operational processes of the Customs officers were carried out on the information technology system through the integrated surveillance software of central data system of the Customs.

After more than 3 months of implementation, all the information from advice and proposals of the staff is on duty and supervising online has been concretized under a number of documents guiding and rectifying the inspection and supervision in the entire Customs. For example, after receiving suggestions from the division on duty and supervision for abnormal signs in white glasses importing that were suspected of tax evasion as well as suggestions on applying the risk management for cargo handlers of pilots and the service staff of international flight..., the leaders of the General Department of Customs issued timely many documents to direct the entire Customs forces tighten control.

Talking to the reporters, some Customs officials in charge of being on duty and supervising online said that this division assisted the Customs control forces to handle dozens of violations through the data system, airport surveillance cameras in March 2017.

Typically, in March 2017, after receiving information from a photo of a suspected smugglers at a foreign airport, the Customs force inspected, identified the first clue that was a location of an airport in Cuba. Immediately, the Customs force selected and put the key flights and subjects into their view when knowing the schedule of each flight clearly from Cuba to Vietnam via Noi Bai International Airport. Specifically, March 19th, 2017, the Customs forces being on duty and supervising online in cooperation within the Customs forces in the area examined four suspected passengers on the flight VN18 from Cuba transiting Paris (France) to Noi Bai International Airport. As a result of the inspection, all four passengers carried a total of 16,996 cigarettes in undeclared consignments.

On the seaport route, the Customs forces being on duty and supervising online reviewed and documented to track the container WHSU5018375 transported to the Cat Lai Port and registered the independent transferred declaration by the Viet Tran Tourism Service Trading Import Export Limited Company on June 16th, 2017 at Customs Sub-Department of the Saigon Port Region 1 for transportation to Cambodia. Derived from above information, on June 21st, 2017, at the Cat Lai port, Ho Chi Minh City, the Intellectual Property Protection and Control Team (Team 4 – the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Bureau) chaired and co-operated with the related parties to conduct the examination of the whole consignment, as a result, 35 items suspected fake, infringement of intellectual property rights such as: Apple and Samsung phone accessories, Puma, Nike, Adidas sportswear; Adidas, Converse shoes, Louis Vuitton, Montblanc bags, Chanel, Hermes, Cartier charms...

In order to improve the effectiveness of the online on duty and supervision, the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Bureau proposed to train and understand thoroughly the requirements and contents of being on duty, To request the units to appoint their leaders and clues to supervise their work at the units in order to synthesize and prepare contents, issues that need to monitor, supervise, speed up, remind; To inspect, coordinate concurrently when there are requirements on professional work related field in charge of the unit. Through being on duty, online supervision of the electronic data requires frequently the specialists in the areas of code, pricing, classification, procedures, risk management to analyze and process information, support the leader to make decisions timely.

By Quang Hung/ Binh Minh - Customs News