HCM City talks tax, customs-related hindrances with firms

A recent survey conducted by the Hepza Business Association show that the business community supports the application of e-customs which has brought about practical benefits, including shortened time for customs procedure and goods clearance.

Association Chairman Nguyen Van Be said however, companies still reported difficulties when working directly with customs officers. While the most time-consuming steps are verifying dossiers and considering the rate of goods to be checked, certain difficulties still exist due to lax coordination among customs sub-departments.

Dinh Ngoc Thang, Deputy Director of the municipal Customs Department, explained some new customs regulations and said businesses should actively update related policy changes in order to save procedure handling time.

Nguyen Duc Khanh, an officer of the department, said errors in e-customs systems are inevitable during the transition from the old system to the new one.

The sector will use old methods in case the new system encounters errors so as to ensure goods clearance, he added.

Regarding tax reform, Deputy Director of the municipal Taxation Department Tran Thi Le Nga said her sector plans to continue reducing the required time to deal with tax procedures by 45 hours by the end of this year, compared to 2014.

She noted the Taxation Department will also increase dialogues with businesses to timely tackle hindrances facing them.

The dialogue on June 19 was held by the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre, the Taxation and Customs Departments, and the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza)./.