According to the department, the Noi Bai International Airport Border Gate Customs Sub-department has recently received an order from a nine-year-old Australian boy who asked for VAT remission for a watch valued at VND6 billion (USD260,869).

"There have been no regulations on the age of the persons who ask for tax remission defined in Decree 72/2014/TT-BTC issued by the Ministry of Finance, so we are seeking instructions from the General Department of Vietnam Customs to see if the boy's request was legitimate," the department said.

The department also reported another case in which a South Korean man, Hwang Gi Sun who has been granted long-stay visa in Vietnam, had a VAT rebate on his watch valued at VND4.39 billion (USD190,869) on January 3, 2019.

On January 15, Hwang Gi Sun flew to Thailand bringing the watch. He came back to Vietnam on January 16 with the watch. And the department wanted to ask the general department whether it was right to give the man a VAT rebate, and once he had reclaimed the VAT, how to monitor this.

The department also suggested that the time of 30 minutes allowed to foreigners to bring their goods for checking before departure defined in Decree 72/2014/TT-BTC should be changed as this was not enough for customs officers with high-valued goods.