According to Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg issued by the Prime Minister on April 19, 2019 on importing used machinery, equipment, and technology lines, which stipulates that only used machinery is allowed to be imported to directly serve the production activities of enterprises.
To implement this regulation, the Customs Department has issued many documents directing regional customs branches on documents, order and procedures from receiving documents, checking detailed documents, checking actual goods, bringing goods for preservation, collecting information, assessing risks and checking after customs clearance to create favorable conditions for importing enterprises while still ensuring strict control.
In 2025, through information collection and grasping the local situation, the Customs Department found that the import of used machinery and equipment directly serving production has many potential signs of violations.
Following the direction of the Department's leaders, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department has conducted inspections and verification at a number of enterprises importing this type of goods. The results showed serious violations, such as businesses without factories or production activities but legalizing import documents by declaring fraudulent purposes on customs declarations; making false commitments to customs authorities; or creating fake import trust contracts to be cleared, then selling domestically for illegal profits.
Through investigation, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department discovered that a business from 2021 to 2025 opened 19 import declarations for 325 used machines, including metal cutting machines, metal wire cutting machines using electrical dames, hooded cutting machines using the electrification method, metal cutting pulses, CNC drilling machines and CNC center processing machines. The total value of customs declaration is over 18 billion VND. After that, this enterprise sold 235 used machinery to 140 enterprises with a total value of more than 23 billion VND, illegally profiting over 8 billion VND.
Continuing to expand the investigation, the customs agency discovered that another enterprise in 2025 had opened 3 import declarations of 48 used machines with a total declared value of 4.4 billion VND. These items include metal cutting machines, metal wire cutting machines using electrical beams, hole- dating machines using the electrification method and CNC center processing machines. The enterprise sold 13 machines to 13 domestic units, worth 1.39 billion VND, illegally profiting nearly 600 million VND.
Realizing that both cases had signs of crime, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department discussed with the Supreme People's Procuracy (Department 3) for handling according to the law. To date, this agency has issued two decisions to prosecute a criminal case for smuggling under Article 188 of the 2015 Penal Code against two related enterprises.
According to the Customs Department, the above cases show that some businesses have taken advantage of policies to allow the import of used machinery for domestic trade, violated policies to manage imported goods and created an unhealthy competitive environment.
Used machinery and equipment imported may be outdated technology, not ensuring requirements on capacity, performance, consumption of raw materials, energy, and not meeting safety, energy saving, environmental protection standards, increasing the risk of Vietnam becoming an industrial landfill.
The Customs Department said that in the coming time, it will continue to direct regional customs branches to strengthen inspection, control, information collection and risk assessment at all stages to ensure good implementation of legal regulations, avoiding taking advantage of state management policies in importing used machinery, equipment and lines to carry out smuggling acts.
