Staff at the Hai Phong Taxation Department process tax policies for customers. The General Department of Taxation will enable up to 1,000 enterprises in five provinces – Ha Noi, HCM City, Bac Ninh, Dong Nai and Nghe An – to pay their tax online by the end of this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hung

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— The General Department of Taxation will enable up to 1,000 enterprises in five provinces – Ha Noi, HCM City, Bac Ninh, Dong Nai and Nghe An - to pay their tax online by the end of this year.

The move follows the success of a recent pilot programme where 100 Ha Noi-based enterprises used an online tax or "e-tax" service to pay tax.

Three commercial banks, including Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), the Viet Nam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) and the Military Bank will work with the General Department of Taxation (GDT) to offer the e-tax payment service.

Speaking to Thue (Taxation) magazine, the deputy head of the GDT's Information Technology Department, Pham Quang Toan, said the project aimed to simplify tax procedures.

He added that firms could see the advantages of electronic procedures and were finding the e-tax service easy to use. Up to 250,000 firms have already submitted their declarations online.

According to Toan, improvements in the availability of internet access and the provision of e-tax by more commercial banks had simplified the introduction of the new service.

The Department aims to have all the commercial banks participating in the provision of e-tax by 2015.

The Head of the Ha Noi Taxation Department Phi Van Tuan, confirmed that over 100 enterprises in the city had used the e-tax service, processing up to 541 transactions worth VND683.7 million (US$32,500) last year.

The new service will enable up to 150 bank branches to collect tax payments, in addition to the 37 State Treasury offices.

Plans are being developed to allow tax payments to be made at automatic teller machines (ATMs). — VNS