Ministries work on draft circular to ease congestion at seaports

Ministries are urgently working on a circular to allow imported goods to move from one seaport to another in case the first is overrun.

Authorities want to provide new regulations as overloading occurred at Cat Lai Port in HCM City recently, while the country has no official policy on the issue. To deal with the overloading, the Ministry of Finance (MoF)’s General Department of Customs had to apply temporary measures, allowing the movement of goods stored at Cat Lai Port to other seaports.

Cat Lai Port in HCM City was overloaded due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has finalized the draft circular and sent it to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) for consultation before approval.

In response to the MoF’s request, the MoIT said it has basically agreed with the draft circular.

Regarding the basis for determining the goods stuck at a port and needing to move to another following the rules of the draft circular, the MoIT suggested the congestion should be determined when goods at the port reach the maximum permissible design capacity as announced previously by the port enterprise.

The congestion of the port must be inspected and approved by the provincial customs departments.

Earlier this month, the number of imported containers waiting at Cat Lai Port increased rapidly because many factories and enterprises have reduced production or stopped working due to pandemic prevention requirements and were unable to receive or release shipments.

To solve the problem, the MoF’s General Department of Customs allowed the movement of goods stored at Cat Lai Port to other seaports in HCM City and inland container depots (ICD).

According to the rules of the department, only goods that are not subject to customs procedures at the border gate (as prescribed in Decision No 23/2019/QĐ-TTg) and those that have not submitted an import declaration can be moved to different ports.

Moreover, the goods must not show signs of violation during inspection by the authorities and the entire shipment must belong to a single bill of lading, with the same owner and place of storage.

Regarding the destination, the goods must be transported to seaports in provinces where the enterprises are located.

Specifically, goods imported by Dong Nai enterprises will be transferred to Tan Cang Long Binh ICD or Tan Cang Nhon Trach ICD. Those for enterprises in Binh Phuoc will be transported to Tan Cang Song Than IDC. Meanwhile, goods belonging to enterprises in the western provinces will be transported to Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc Port.

Shipments will be managed and closely monitored while transported from Cat Lai Port until the importers complete customs procedures to remove the goods.

These measures are effective for 15 days from the date the People's Committee of HCM City has announced suspending the implementation of Directive 16.

(Source:SGGP)