Industry Events

Technical Working Group Discussion on Customs-Private Partnership between the General Department of Customs and Excise and the Private Sector of Cambodia Chamber of Commerce

Technical Group Discussion of Customs-Private Partnership Mechanism
Between the General Department of Customs and Excise​​ (GDCE), led by HE Nuon Chanrith, Deputy Director of the GDCE, with the technical team of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC), led by co-chairman Oknha Kouch Peng and Oknha Sok Piseth, vice president of the CCC And Chairmen of the Board of Directors of the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Cambodia and also of the Business Information Company (BizInfo Co., Ltd) on December 27, 2019, in the Office of the GDCE. The discussion focused on the following agendas:

1. Pre-arrival Clearance and modernization of the customs clearance system
2. The Unfair Competition: The inequality between the import-taxed goods vs smuggled goods
3. HS Code of a country of origin that is not recognized
4. Request Training on HS Code
5. DHL’s Request for Progress on Simplified Procedures for International Fast Delivery (submitted to April 2019)
6. Implementation of Prakas 1608 on Customs Fees
7. Import licenses related to the uncertain definition in pharmaceutical products (0% tax) and Food Supplements (import taxes required)
8. Import Permit, which requires the company to obtain the import inspection twice (the first time at the customs gate Ka’am Sranor and the second time at Kandal Province Customs Branch), which took a longer period.

The discussions went smoothly and with understanding and favor. Most of the agendas are supported by the GDCE and some other agendas will require additional time to study with relevant stakeholders. The GDCE plans to discuss and resolve the impasses in February 2020 at last. The current available responses and solutions are as following:

Agenda 4: The GDCE approves the proposal on the HS Code Training requested and the GDCE will add other important courses to the private sector.

Agenda 6: Approval with full support, especially for the 110 Best Traders who are struggling to comply and implement the official customs fees.

Agenda 7: Import licenses for companies that are already registered with the Ministry of Health and that are subject to the 0% tax, in contrast, the GDCE considers the Food Supplements subjected to tax duty. The discussion agreed to have another meeting with the presence of Expertise from the Ministry of Health to clearly understand and solve the cases.

Agenda 8: The GDCE clarified that if the imported goods come from two different customs gateways, verification is required for double or different controls. But if the same 2 imported goods are imported through a single customs gateway, the verification should be done once. After all, this point will be furtherly discussed on a few more specific cases.