On August 21, 2026, the Customs Department issued Official Letter No. 20731/CHQ-GSQL clarifying the cases in which export processing enterprises and their partners may choose whether or not to carry out customs procedures.
Accordingly, there are 04 specific cases in which customs procedures may be chosen, including:
- Goods serving specific activities stipulated under Article 26.4.b of Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP when brought into or taken out of an export processing enterprise.
- Goods serving research and testing: Including goods brought into/out of an export processing enterprise for inspection, testing, assay, classification, or research and development (R&D).
- Internal transfer: Goods circulated or transferred between factories or storage warehouses within the same export processing enterprise (sharing a single tax code).
- Transfer with a dependent branch: Applicable when goods are transferred between an export processing enterprise and its dependent branch, provided that the branch is not authorized by the parent company to register customs declarations.
In addition, the Customs Department is advising the Ministry of Finance on issuing a new Circular to fully replace Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC and Circular 121/2025/TT-BTC. The new draft will further amend and supplement additional cases in which export processing enterprises and their partners may choose customs procedures.
(Pursuant to Official Letter No. 20731/CHQ-GSQL dated August 21, 2026)
Related service: Customs clearance procedures
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