Challenges in collecting import-export budget in the last months of the year

Over the past 8 months, Customs Branch VIII has proactively and made efforts to implement synchronous solutions, both facilitating trade and ensuring budget revenue, contributing to stabilizing the province's socio-economic situation. However, with the sharp decline in revenue from key commodities, it shows that the implementation of import-export budget collection will face many challenges in the last months of the year.

Customs officers at Hon Gai port guide businesses through customs clearance procedures.

In the past 8 months, to increase the State budget revenue, the Customs Branch of Region VIII has promoted administrative reform, creating favorable conditions for businesses. The unit has received and processed over 136,000 declarations of all types from 2,274 businesses (an increase of 21% in the number of declarations, an increase of 41% in the number of businesses compared to the same period last year); carried out procedures for nearly 536,000 vehicles, supervised over 4.68 million passengers (an increase of 49% in the number of vehicles and an increase of 5% in the number of passengers compared to the same period last year); returned results for 1,189 specialized inspection declarations on the National Single Window Portal; received 164 electronic C/O form D from ASEAN countries. In addition, the unit has carried out tax policy propaganda in visual forms such as clips, instruction documents, and disseminated new documents related to import-export activities. Over 20 problems of enterprises have been promptly resolved. This is a testament to the efforts to accompany the business community, considering enterprises as both the service objects and the decisive factor in expanding budget revenue sources.

By the end of August 2025, the state budget revenue in the import-export sector reached over VND 11,367 billion (equal to 64% of the target assigned by the Government and the province, equal to 56% of the target assigned by the Customs Department and reaching 88% of the operating scenario). However, compared to the same period in 2024, the revenue decreased by about 9.6% (equivalent to VND 1,206 billion). The main reason is that the revenue in some key areas decreased. Specifically, Cam Pha port customs collected VND 5,061 billion (down 13.3%), Hon Gai port customs collected nearly VND 4,480 billion (down 11.5%); Hoanh Mo border customs collected over VND 48 billion (down 46%) and Bac Phong Sinh border customs collected nearly VND 7 billion (down 18%).

Budget revenue through Bac Phong Sinh border gate decreased by 18% compared to the same period in 2024. Photo: Huu Viet

Actual records show that the State budget revenue in the first 8 months of 2025 decreased compared to the same period in 2024 mainly due to the sharp decline in coal and petroleum products, which are two products that account for a large proportion in the revenue structure of the entire Department. In August 2025 alone, this product group caused a budget deficit of about 193 billion VND compared to the previous month. Specifically, revenue from petroleum products only reached 177 billion VND, down 46.8% compared to July; while coal exports decreased by 47% and coal imports decreased by 38%. In addition, many other products also tended to decrease such as machinery and equipment (down 38%), wood chips (down 66%), scrap (down 82%). On the contrary, some products had positive growth, typically raw materials for animal feed production increased by 79%, vegetable oil increased by 1,544%. However, the growth in the size of these product groups is not enough to compensate for the decline in key products.

In that context, there are still positive signs when border trade activities at Mong Cai International Border Gate Customs maintain growth momentum, with an increase of over 16% compared to the same period in 2024, showing that the attraction from the Chinese market is quite stable. In particular, the US's adjustment of the reciprocal tax policy on Vietnamese goods from 46% to 20% from August 7, 2025 is also opening up new opportunities for exports in the last months of the year.

However, according to the assigned target, with the above revenue, from now until the end of the year, the State budget collection task of the Customs Branch VIII is extremely heavy. Statistics show that with 17,800 billion VND assigned by the Government and the province, the unit will need to collect about 6,400 billion VND more in the last 4 months of the year, an average of more than 1,600 billion VND per month. This is a big challenge, especially when the coal and petroleum markets still have many unpredictable fluctuations.

Faced with that situation, the Customs Branch of Region VIII has developed a plan and proposed many specific solutions to closely follow the development of budget revenue, flexibly adjust the scenario, and focus on items with room for growth. At the same time, strictly implement regulations on customs valuation, classification, tax imposition, tax refund, and prevention of budget revenue loss; strengthen customs inspection and control, strengthen the fight against smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods; coordinate with competent authorities to develop a smart border gate project, deploy digital border gates, gradually modernize customs, and reduce costs for businesses. In particular, in September 2025, the Customs Branch of Region VIII set a target of collecting 1,772 billion VND, considering this an important task to create momentum to complete the plan for the whole year.

In addition to the above solutions, in the coming time, the long-term strategy of the province and the Customs sector needs to aim at diversifying the commodity structure, encouraging businesses to develop high value-added products, and at the same time taking full advantage of free trade agreements to expand the market. Because looking at the import-export budget collection of Quang Ninh in the past 8 months clearly reflects the reality that when revenue depends too much on a few key products, there will be many potential risks and fluctuations.

Hoang Nga

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/thach-thuc-thu-ngan-sach-xnk-chang-thang-cuoi-nam-3374812.html