The General Department of Customs (GDC) on Tuesday signed a co-operation agreement with six commercial banks to implement a 24/7 e-tax payment scheme.

The five local banks are Sacombank, VPBank, HDBank, LienvietpostBank, SCB and the foreign bank is Mizuho Bank Ltd. The e-tax payment through the six banks will be implemented from December 15.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, GDC’s Deputy General Director Nguyen Duong Thai said the customs sector was required to upgrade its e-payment portal for the purpose of administrative reform.

The e-tax payment would facilitate tax payment anywhere, anytime, reduce time and ensure immediate goods clearance. The customs authority will directly support enterprises to make payment documents from the original data and minimise errors in money transfer procedures.

This could help shorten time to complete customs procedures for import-export activities to the average level of ASEAN-4 countries following the Government’s instructions.

Firms only need certificate authority (CA) to transfer money and authorise banks to pay taxes through their accounts without fees.

Banks participating in e-tax payment are required to upgrade their e-payment portal.

Previously, the e-tax payment agreement was signed with five banks — Vietcombank, VietinBank, BIDV, MB and Techcombank — on October 23.

So far, about 1,500 successful transactions have been processed through the website with a tax payment of VND200 billion (US$8.8 million). — VNS