On March 16, the Customs Department announced that to facilitate customs clearance, it had issued several directives and guidelines for its affiliated and subordinate units to follow.

From March 15, the Customs Department officially launched the new organizational model across its entire system. As part of this transition, it notified the business community via the Customs Electronic Portal about a temporary suspension of declaration receipt on the system from 11:00 p.m. on March 14 to 5:00 a.m. on March 15.

Customs units arranged for officers to be on duty and coordinated with the IT Department during the system transition from 11:00 p.m. on March 14 to the end of March 16.

Additionally, all officers and employees were required to work as usual on Saturday and Sunday (March 15-16, 2025).

Staff were also assigned to support, guide, and address any difficulties encountered by customs officers and businesses in using the system.

"As of 5:00 p.m. on March 15, import-export turnover had reached $1.05 billion, with over 20,300 declarations processed," the Customs Department reported.

During the implementation of the new IT system, the Customs Department ensured uninterrupted processing of customs procedures for exports, imports, and transit transport. Clearance operations remained swift and efficient under the new organizational structure.

On the first day, customs units at border gates and inland clearance points were instructed to continuously monitor and assign officers to promptly process all pending applications in the system. No cases were left unresolved beyond the deadlines stipulated in the Customs Law.

For units undergoing mergers or closures, urgent directives were issued to review and complete customs procedures for all outstanding declarations that had not yet been cleared.

As of March 15, the Customs Department had updated the names of customs offices at border and inland clearance points under the new structure and had not received any reports of procedural difficulties.

Tien Dung