CIRCULAR

GUIDING CUSTOMS PROCEDURES FOR CARGOES IN INTERNATIONAL MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION

Pursuant to Customs Law No. 29/2001/QH10, which was passed on June 29, 2001 by the Xth National Assembly at its 9th session;
Pursuant to the Governments Decree No. 101/2001/ND-CP of December 31, 2001 detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Customs Law regarding customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision regime;
Pursuant to Article 3 of the Governments Decree No. 125/2003/ND-CP of October 29, 2003 on international multimodal transportation, the Ministry of Finance hereby guides customs procedures for cargoes in international multimodal transportation as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Cargoes in international multimodal transportation (hereinafter called cargoes for short) must go through customs procedures and be subject to customs supervision in the course of preservation in, and transportation via, the Vietnamese territory; cargoes must be transported according to the right routes, the right border gates and delivered at the locations inscribed in the multimodal transportation vouchers.

2. Cargoes must be stored in containers or assorted transport means or special-use vehicles, which meet the requirements on customs sealing. For super-long or super-weighty cargoes, or cargoes being transport means, which cannot be sealed up, the carriers must be answerable to law for keeping intact the cargoes throughout the transportation and preservation process in Vietnam.

3. Cargoes delivered to their consignee outside the Vietnamese territory shall be exempt from actual inspection, except for cases where signs of violating the customs legislation are detected.

4. Cargoes delivered to their consignees in Vietnam must go through customs procedures at the customs offices of the border gates other than the first import border gates or inland clearance depots (ICDs). The customs procedures for cargo import shall comply with the provisions of the Finance Ministers Decision No. 56/2003/QD-BTC of April 16, 2003 prescribing the customs dossiers and customs procedures applicable to cargoes exported and imported under purchase/sale contracts.

II. CUSTOMS PROCEDURES

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- License for multimodal transportation business: 01 copy, certified by the enterprise director (to be submitted for the first time when customs procedures are carried out), with the original to be produced for comparison.

- Multimodal transportation voucher (made according to the form already registered with the Ministry of Transport): 01 original.

- The list of cargoes in multimodal transportation (including the following criteria: ordinal number, name of cargoes, volume, weight, value): 01 original.

2. Cargoes delivered to their consignees outside the Vietnamese territory:

The customs procedures therefore shall be carried out as for transit cargoes prescribed in Article 15 of the Governments Decree No. 101/2001/ND-CP of December 31, 2001 detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Customs Law regarding customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision regime.

3. Cargoes delivered to their consignees at ICDs or the border gates other than the import border gates:

3.1. Responsibilities of multimodal transportation enterprises:

- To submit and produce to the first import border-gate customs offices the vouchers mentioned at Point 1 above.

- To keep cargoes and customs seals intact in the course of transporting cargoes from the first import border gates to ICDs or the border gates where cargoes are delivered to their consignees.

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3.2. Responsibilities of the first import border-gate Customs Sub-Departments:

- To receive multimodal transportation dossiers and vouchers.

- Other responsibilities as provided for at Point 1.1, Section 1, Part III of the Regulation promulgated together with the Finance Ministers Decision No. 53/2003/QD-BTC of April 16, 2003 on customs procedures for export and import goods subject to border-gate transfer.

3.3. Responsibilities of Customs Sub-Departments of ICDs or border gates other than the import border gates

- To comply with the provisions of Point 1.2, Section 1, Part III of the Regulation promulgated together with the Finance Ministers Decision No. 53/2003/QD-BTC of April 16, 2003 on customs procedures for export and import goods subject to border-gate transfer.

4. Export goods with procedures carried out at ICDs:

4.1. Responsibilities of ICD customs offices:

To comply with the provisions of Point 1.2, Section 2, Part II of the Regulation promulgated together with the Finance Ministers Decision No. 53/2003/QD-BTC of April 16, 2003.

4.2. Responsibilities of export border-gate customs offices:

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III. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

This Circular takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. In the course of implementation, if any difficulties or problems arise, the concerned customs units and enterprises should promptly report them to the Ministry of Finance for study and additional guidance.

FOR THE MINSTER OF FINANCE
VICE MINISTER




Truong Chi Trung