Customs: Strengthen inspection and control of imports of used machinery and equipment

The Customs Department said that according to Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg dated April 19, 2019 regulating the import of used machinery, equipment and technological lines, it stipulates that only used machinery is allowed to be imported to directly serve the production activities of enterprises. To implement the above Decision, the General Department of Customs - now the Customs Department - has issued many documents directing and guiding on customs records, procedures and processes.

In 2025, through information collection and understanding of the local situation, it was found that the import of used machinery, equipment and technological lines directly serving the production of domestic enterprises had many potential risks of violations. Implementing the direction of the leaders of the Customs Department, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department conducted inspections and verifications at a number of enterprises importing used machinery directly serving the production of domestic enterprises.

The results have discovered violations in the import of used machinery. Specifically, enterprises do not have factories for production, do not have production activities but by means of legalizing import documents through false declarations about the purpose of importing used machinery on customs declarations; falsely when having a written commitment with the Customs agency where the declaration is registered about the purpose of importing machinery to directly serve the production activities of the enterprise or creating fake import authorization contracts to present and submit to customs agencies to get customs clearance of goods, when imported, they are sold domestically to gain illegal profits.

Typically, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department discovered that from 2021 to 2025, a business opened 19 import declarations for 325 used machines (electric spark metal cutting machines/wire cutting machines, electric discharge punching machines, electric pulse metal cutting machines, CNC drilling machines and CNC machining centers), with a total customs declaration value of over 18 billion VND. Then, it sold 235 used machines to 140 businesses, with a total value of over 23 billion VND, illegally profiting over 8 billion VND.

Continuing to expand the investigation, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department discovered that in 2025, a business opened 3 import declarations for 48 used machines, with a total customs declaration value of 4.4 billion VND. Then, it sold 13 used machines to 13 businesses, with a total value of 1.39 billion VND, illegally profiting nearly 600 million VND.

Realizing that the two cases had signs of crime, the customs authority issued two decisions to prosecute criminal cases for the crime of Smuggling under Article 188 of the 2015 Penal Code related to the two above enterprises.

In the coming time, to ensure good implementation of legal regulations, avoid taking advantage of state management policies in the import of used machinery, equipment and production lines to carry out smuggling activities, the Customs Department will continue to direct regional Customs Branches, Customs where declarations are registered, Control Team, Post-clearance Inspection Team, Risk Management Department to strengthen inspection, control, information collection, and risk assessment from the following stages: Detailed inspection of customs dossiers; physical inspection of goods; bringing goods into storage; customs clearance and post-clearance of goods; risk assessment and consideration of post-clearance inspection for enterprises that have imported used machinery, equipment and production lines.

Some businesses have taken advantage of the State's policies in importing used machinery for commercial sale. This not only violates the State's import goods management policy but also creates an unhealthy business environment and competition among domestic businesses trading used machinery.
In addition, used machinery and equipment imported into Vietnam may also be outdated technology, not meeting the requirements of capacity/performance, consumption of raw materials, energy and not meeting safety standards, energy saving, environmental protection as prescribed by current laws. This increases the risk of Vietnam becoming an industrial waste dump, causing environmental pollution.

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