On January 2, 2023, Kugan Pillai’s Facebook page had a status complaining that he was asked for money by a Hanoi Customs officer. Mr. Kugan Pillai said that he went to Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport to check in to his flight to Singapore and he was in a hurry. But the Customs officer holding his passport didn’t want to return it, and wrote something on his ticket. In the end, because he wanted to catch the flight, he had to give this official VND500,000 ($21). But he felt like being held hostage, if he didn’t give the money, his passport would not be returned. This status line has now disappeared on Kugan Pillai’s personal page, it is not clear if the owner deleted it or was blocked by Facebook.
But many other Facebookers took screenshots and shared, most of them sympathizing with Mr. Kungan Pillai and disgruntled with Vietnam’s Customs. Facebooker Hoang Hung posted a photo of Kungan Pillai’s status, along with a story about his family’s experience during a visit to Vietnam to celebrate New Year festival or Tet.
The fact that Vietnamese Customs officers take bribery in all cases is not a new thing, it has been going on for decades. The story of oversea Vietnamese who returned from abroad, accused of being asked for money at the airports, the story of their lugguges being slashed, stolen goods, and the story of import-export businesses having to pay commission for customs are in newspapers and on social networks every year. However, there have only been a few sporadic arrests, but Trong’s furnace has not fanned the fire into this sector.
Recently, on December 31, 2022, the Investigative Police of Nghe An province probed the case of “taking bribes” at the Nam Can Border Gate Customs Branch. Three customs officers received bribes, including: Phan Van Nham- Director of the Sub-Department, Ngo Xuan Khang- Team Leader, and Dang Minh Son- officer of the Professional Team.
Da Nang – the place that is praised as the most livable place in Vietnam, where the administrative apparatus is quick, professional, and does not harass the people. However, Da Nang Customs Department was repeatedly accused of “asking for tips” from customers.
In August 2018, tour guide Che Viet Dong accused the customs officer of collecting 10 yuan for each Chinese visitor. Mr. Dong said that he was “forced to speak out because this is the face of the nation.” He felt humiliated when being asked by customers why the customs officer at Da Nang International Airport was collecting money from them every time they entered and exited the country.
But Da Nang International Airport Customs Branch denied this, and said that there was no collection of money as Che Viet Dong said. However, they added, guests may confuse the forces at the airport. That is, they also did not completely deny that customers are being charged.
Also in 2018, a passenger in Hanoi accused Noi Bai International Airport’s customs of “taking additional fees out of the law” (that is, collecting money off the books) with them, and at the same time denounced the lack of standard working attitude and harassment against people. Specifically, Ms. H accused the Noi Bai airport customs force of having seized some of her goods without making a record, forcing her to pay VND5 million to get back the goods.
Before that, another woman with her daughter flew back from Japan, she was also asked to “donate” VND5 million to clear her goods.
In 2016, a series of customs missions in Ho Chi Minh City shared billions of dollars of corruption and bribery. This case was revealed, dozens of customs officers in the city were imprisoned. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) once published a survey on the satisfaction of businesses with customs, and many businesses said that they have to give bribery when doing customs procedures, otherwise, they would meet difficulties such as: prolonging the time for procedures, requesting additional documents and documents not in the regulations…
And yet, the customs officers also abet the smugglers or being smugglers themselves. In 2017, a number of customs officers in HCM City was arrested for aiding smugglers to import some goods worth VND9 billion. In 2018, also the city customs were accused by some businesses of threatening and demanding bribery.
The customs sector is one of the most worsened sectors. Since nearly ten years ago, rumors of taking a position in this sector would have to give a bribery sum of VND2 billion, have spread among the people. The reason for the price of a “bribery” is so high, simply because officials of this sector can have high unofficial incomes.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
