Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha has urged the tax sector to make a positive change in the settlement of arrears in the second half of the year.

Speaking at a conference to review the implementation of taxation held in Ha Noi on Friday, Ha said solutions to arrears were the administration’s main issue.

“The tax department needs to have a scheme for dealing with tax arrears. They need to register the scheme with the General Department of Taxation and the Ministry of Finance,” said Ha.

He said leaders of the sector had to send solutions to the Ministry of Finance. The solutions would be sent to the Government and the National Assembly for approval. If these were passed, the ministry would issue guiding documents for implementation throughout the system.

Ha said from now to the end of the year, the sector must drastically deploy the inspection and examination tasks and inspectors should thoroughly inspect and examine every area, every key field and sensitive items.

The sector will focus on areas that are losing revenue such as capital transfer, associated transactions, e-commerce and mining. It will also continuously prevent losses from non-State owned enterprises and business households under the Prime Minister’s Instruction 26/CT-TTg dated June 6, 2017, striving for at least 18.5 per cent of operating enterprises to be inspected.

According to Ha, the tax sector has implemented all the tax arrears management measures set out earlier this year, contributing to raising State budget. It is striving for total tax arrears as of December 31, 2018 that will not exceed 5 per cent of the amount collected in the year.

At the conference, Deputy Director of Ha Noi Tax Department Mai Son said to effectively manage tax arrears, the department would continue to closely coordinate with its branches from grassroots to overcome difficulties and conduct exemptions, reductions and refunds of tax according to regulations.

Son said the department would advise mechanisms and policies to help enterprises in arrears and facing difficulties, to continuously sell their goods and have cash flow to pay taxes.

Ha suggested the sector should make further efforts in implementing the revenue estimates that have been already assigned by the National Assembly and the Government, striving to complete and exceed the task.

"Government leaders have asked the tax sector to exceed 5 per cent of the revenue estimate this year. This is a big number. As calculated, to achieve this estimate, the tax sector must collect about VND4 trillion (US$173.18 million) every working day,” Ha said.

In addition, Ha also required the sector to focus on reviewing administrative procedures, especially circulars as well as procedures in order to solve problems at localities, creating conditions for tax payers and improving the business investment environment.

“It’s needed to begin from the Law on Tax Administration. Currently, the law (amendment) has been included in the programme to submit to the National Assembly,” said Ha.

As the law is issued, it’s necessary to have high implementation capacity and transparency, preventing negative manifestations in tax administration," he added.

Ha also wanted the sector to continue building budget estimates for 2019 and medium-term plan for 2019 to 2021.

In the first six months of this year, the total payment collected was estimated at VND531.52 trillion, equivalent to 49.7 per cent of the plan, up 13.9 per cent over the same period last year, in which revenue from crude oil was estimated at nearly VND29.57 trillion, equaling 82.4 per cent of the estimate, up 25.3 per cent.

In order to prevent budget losses, inspection and examination of State budget loss has been intensified. In the first six months of this year, taxmen at all levels inspected 30,189 enterprises, collecting through inspections nearly VND5.76 trillion. — VNS