HANOI: The Ministry of Finance recently made changes to a circular that regulates the terms of customs declaration for passengers entering and exiting Vietnam.
New terms have been added to Article 4 and Article 6 of the new circular which will come into effect on July 10.
Point c of Clause 1 of Article 4 refers to changes in the volume of alcohol, number of cigarettes and amount of tobacco that must be declared when exiting and entering the country. Specifically, passengers carrying liquor with alcohol volume of 20 per cent and above (instead of from 22 per cent in the old circular) and more than 20 cigarettes and 250g of tobacco (instead of 100 cigarettes and 500g of tobacco in the old circular) must declare the goods in the customs form.
Point d.3 of the same article details categories of passengers who are required to declare their gold and jewellery in the customs form for 300g or more of gold and ornaments. This covers incoming and outgoing passengers with passports, as regulated in Point d.3.1, incoming and outgoing passengers with border passes, entry and exit passes and identity cards (d.3.2), foreigners with residence permits in Vietnam (d.3.3), and Vietnamese citizens with residence permits in foreign countries (d.3.4).
Point e of Clause 4 of Article 6 instructs customs officials on examining passenger goods that belong to specialised agencies. After examining the goods, officials must note down the series number and the title of documents from specialised agencies that allow them to examine the goods in the “certification by customs” section on page 2 and 4 of the customs declaration form, apart from signing and stamping their names as stated in the old circular.
In case the information on the customs declaration form does not match with documents from specialised agencies, the luggage must be sent to the border-gate customs warehouse.
Customs officials must also write down that passengers have luggage stored at the warehouses in the “certification by customs” section on page 2 and 4 of the declaration form.
