Customs clearance is the point at which the goods may move on, not the point at which responsibility ends. Importers of electrical and electronic equipment face two further layers of inspection: the post-clearance audit run by customs, and the quality checks that specialised agencies carry out on goods circulating in the market. The two differ in who acts, on what basis, how far back they reach and what follows. This article sets out what Law 11/2026 changes for the post-clearance audit, the records importers and sellers must keep, and the reporting cycles a business has to maintain.
1. Two layers of inspection after the goods leave the border
| Point | Post-clearance audit | Market quality inspection |
|---|---|---|
| Who acts | The customs office | The quality inspection body of the line ministry and the market surveillance authority |
| Legal basis | Articles 77 to 80 of the Law on Customs, as amended by Law 11/2026/QH16 | Articles 88, 89 and 90 of Decree 37/2026/ND-CP |
| What is examined | Customs dossier, accounting records, vouchers and data relating to the goods | Products and goods in circulation, labels, conformity marks, quality records |
| How far back | Up to 05 years from the date the declaration is registered to the date the audit decision is issued | Annual plans and unannounced checks, not limited to a particular declaration |
| Typical consequence | Re-determination of value, recovery of tax, administrative penalty | Suspension from circulation, recall, recycling, administrative penalty |
With electronics the two layers tend to trigger each other. A consignment found to fail a market check becomes the basis on which customs reopens the import file for that consignment and for others like it.
2. Post-clearance audit under Law 11/2026: scope and the five-year limit
Article 77 as amended defines the post-clearance audit as an inspection by customs of the customs dossier, accounting books, accounting vouchers and other documents, records and data relating to the goods, with physical inspection of the goods where necessary and still possible after clearance. The purpose is to assess whether what was declared, filed and presented was accurate and truthful, and to assess compliance with customs law.
A post-clearance audit is carried out within a maximum of 05 years from the date the customs declaration is registered to the date the post-clearance audit decision is issued.
Article 77(4), Law No. 11/2026/QH16
The new wording matters because the five years run to the date the decision is issued, not the date the audit ends. A declaration registered on 1 March 2027 can still be audited up to 1 March 2032, and a decision issued on the last day remains valid.
Two further points sit in the same article: the audit may be carried out at the premises of the customs office or at the premises of the declarant, where the declarant’s premises include the head office, branches, shops, production sites and storage locations; and the audit must rest on risk management, compliance management and the use of digital technology.
3. Authority and duration of the audit: the biggest change in Law 11/2026
Article 79 has been rewritten around the two-tier structure of the customs service. The power to decide a post-clearance audit rests with the Director General of the Customs Department and with directors of post-clearance audit units nationwide; the head of a regional customs office decides within the area under that office. Where the declarant sits outside the assigned area, the regional office reports to the Customs Department so that another unit can be assigned. The annual post-clearance audit plan is issued by the Director General of the Customs Department.
The most substantial change is the time limit. The law in force allows a maximum of 05 working days for an audit at the customs office and 10 working days at the declarant’s premises, extendable once by up to 10 working days. Law 11/2026 replaces this with a single limit.
| Item | Law in force | From 1 March 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Number of procedures | Two separate procedures: at the customs office and at the declarant’s premises | One sequence: preparation, conduct, handling of the result |
| Duration | 05 working days and 10 working days | No more than 20 days from publication of the audit decision |
| Extension | Once, by up to 10 working days | Once, by up to 20 days |
| Who signs the decision | Director General, director of the post-clearance audit department, director of the customs department | Director General of the Customs Department, directors of post-clearance audit units, heads of regional customs offices |
| Detailed sequence | Set out in the law | Set by the Government under Article 80 |
A longer limit is not automatically a disadvantage. One unified sequence means one dossier and one point of contact, instead of two procedures with two different record templates. But an audit can now run to 40 days with the extension, so accounting and warehouse staff have to be planned for that period.
4. Audit sequence and what the company must prepare
Article 80 sets a three-step sequence: preparation, conduct, and handling of the result. The detail is left to the Government, but the principle for handling the result stays as before: where the information, vouchers, documents and explanations supplied show that the declaration was correct, the file is accepted; where that cannot be shown, or the enterprise fails to supply records or to explain on request, customs proceeds under tax law and the law on administrative violations.
During the audit the enterprise has the right to explain and to add information and documents to the customs file. That is the most important right in the process, and the one most often misused: an explanation has to be supported by vouchers, not by a narrative. An explanation of the trading relationship with the manufacturer, unaccompanied by the contract, invoices and payment records, does not count as proof.
5. Records to keep: five years for the owner, three years for the seller
| Type of record | Who keeps it | Period | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customs dossier: declaration, contract, invoice, transport documents, payment records, certificate of origin | Goods owner | 05 years from the date the declaration is registered | Article 18(2)(đ), Law on Customs |
| Technical documentation for goods on which a declaration of conformity has been made | The organisation or individual making the declaration | For the retention period of the technical documentation; to be produced on request | Article 37(2)(g), Decree 22/2026/ND-CP |
| Records and documents on the quality of goods placed on the market | The seller | At least 03 years, or the shelf life where longer | Article 69(2)(d), Decree 37/2026/ND-CP |
| Records proving eligibility for reduced quality inspection | Enterprise under the reduced regime | Kept for post-market checking | Article 86(3)(a), Decree 37/2026/ND-CP |
The three periods do not replace each other. A business that both imports and sells must keep the customs dossier for 05 years, the quality records for 03 years in its capacity as seller, and the technical documentation of the products on which it has declared conformity. For electronic equipment with short model life cycles, the efficient approach is a single file per product code, gathering every declaration, certificate and technical document for that model, rather than storing records consignment by consignment.
6. Post-market quality checks: when samples are taken
Article 88 of Decree 37/2026/ND-CP sets four grounds for a check: the annual inspection plan of the inspection body; an approved plan, an unannounced check, or an instruction from a competent authority; data on risk levels, traceability, barcode numbers, certification and declarations of conformity; and data from quality management systems connected to state bodies, together with violation warnings.
The content moves in three escalating steps: checking compliance with the legal requirements on quality; where there are signs that quality is not assured, sampling and testing at a conformity assessment body; and, for high-risk goods, a plan of periodic or unannounced sampling at suitable locations. The conformity assessment body must be independent and objective, and is answerable in law for its result.
The sequence under Article 89 covers publication of the inspection decision, gathering and assessing information, records and data, and then drawing up the inspection record and, where relevant, the record of administrative violation. Article 90 imposes a recall duty: where goods are found not to conform to the declared standard, the applicable technical regulation, or are capable of creating a risk, the enterprise must handle and recall them and act on the requirements of the state authority.
7. Selling on digital platforms: the record-keeping duty does not change
Article 70 of Decree 37/2026/ND-CP imposes management requirements on both sellers and the operators of intermediary digital platforms used for electronic transactions. The three-year record-keeping duty in Article 69(2)(d) applies to the organisation or individual selling, whether the sale happens in a shop or on a platform.
For electronics businesses selling through a platform, the risk is that the order data sits with the platform while the burden of proof sits with the seller. Download and keep the order data, the details of the imported consignment and the certificate of conformity for the corresponding model, so that they can be produced within the working time of an inspection team.
8. Recurring reporting obligations
| Report | Who files | Frequency | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report on imports of goods under reduced quality inspection | Enterprise under the reduced regime | Every 03 months | Article 86(3)(c), Decree 37/2026/ND-CP |
| Audit report and financial statements | Enterprise recognised under the priority regime | Annually | Article 45, Law on Customs |
| Notification of a decision on a tax or accounting violation | Enterprise recognised under the priority regime | When it arises | Article 45, Law on Customs |
The three-monthly report is a new duty that comes with the benefit of reduced inspection. An enterprise that does not report, or reports inaccurately, loses the reduced regime and may be placed on the list of those no longer covered on the national product and goods quality monitoring system.
9. When an audit decision arrives: how to work through it
- Check who signed the decision and when it was issued against the five-year point running from the date the declaration was registered.
- Fix the scope of the audit: by declaration, by model or by period, so as to limit the volume of records to be produced.
- Build a document index within that scope, checking each declaration against the contract, invoices, payment records and certificate of origin.
- Recheck the product codes and the declared value, since these are the two items most often re-determined in a post-clearance audit.
- Appoint a single point of contact to deal with the audit team, so that different departments do not give different answers.
- Prepare written explanations with supporting vouchers for each item, citing the declaration and document numbers.
- Record the minutes and the notice of result in full, and check them against the original file before signing.
The item that most often costs money is the payment record. A transaction with a foreign supplier routed through several parties, settled by offset or through a third party without a clear supporting contract, frequently leads customs to reject the declared value and to re-determine it from its own databases.
10. What to prepare before 1 March 2027
| Action | Legal basis | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Digitise the customs file by product code, tied to the certificate of conformity for the model | Article 18(2)(đ), Law on Customs; Article 37, Decree 22/2026/ND-CP | One audit can reach several declarations for the same model |
| Review the declarations still inside the five-year window | Article 77(4), Law 11/2026/QH16 | A decision issued before the five-year point remains valid |
| Standardise payment records for each consignment | Article 80, Law 11/2026/QH16 | Where value cannot be shown, it is re-determined and tax recovered |
| Set up the 03-month reporting schedule for goods under reduced inspection | Article 86(3), Decree 37/2026/ND-CP | No report means the reduced regime is lost |
| Keep platform sales data and quality records for 03 years | Articles 69 and 70, Decree 37/2026/ND-CP | It is the seller’s duty, not the platform’s |
The three articles in this series follow the life cycle of a consignment: customs procedures at the border, quality inspection before clearance, and the post-clearance audit together with market checks. A business that controls all three stages controls its compliance cost.
Frequently asked questions
Question 1: can goods cleared four years ago still be audited? Yes. The limit runs to 05 years from the date the declaration is registered, up to the date the audit decision is issued, so a declaration still inside that window remains in scope.
Question 2: what happens if the records are incomplete? Where the enterprise cannot produce the records and vouchers, or does not explain on request, customs proceeds under tax law and the law on administrative violations. The usual outcome is re-determination of value and recovery of tax.
Question 3: are samples exempt from quality inspection still subject to post-market checks? Yes. Exemption from inspection at import does not remove liability for quality. Once a sample is switched to a commercial purpose, the full obligations of a consignment sold on the market apply.
Question 4: does an enterprise under reduced inspection report to customs? No. The three-monthly report goes to the quality inspection body of the line ministry, for post-market checking and quality monitoring. Customs only consults the list of enterprises under the reduced regime when clearing goods.
Related reading
- Importer obligations in customs procedures under Law 11/2026/QH16
- Quality inspection of imported electronics under Decree 37/2026/ND-CP
- Declaration of conformity and self-assessment report forms
- Decree 22/2026/ND-CP: structure and the two chapters on conformity assessment
- Law 78/2025/QH15: risk management principles and declaration of conformity
- Circular 33/2026/TT-BCT: medium-risk and high-risk goods of the Ministry of Industry and Trade
- Choosing a testing laboratory that satisfies Vietnamese law
- Product classification and analysis for classification under Circular 85/2026/TT-BTC
Sources
- Law No. 11/2026/QH16 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Customs, in force from 1 March 2027.
- Law on Customs No. 54/2014/QH13.
- Decree No. 37/2026/ND-CP of 23 January 2026 detailing the Law on Product and Goods Quality.
- Decree No. 22/2026/ND-CP of 16 January 2026 detailing the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations.
This article is published to spread knowledge about import and export standards, regulations and procedures. It does not replace the legal documents and is not legal advice for any specific case. Enterprises should check the original texts and the instructions of the customs office before applying.
