Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce of Industry (VCCI), representing businesses nationwide, on Tuesday urged taxation and customs sectors to further reform administrative procedures.

This call was made by Deputy Chairman of VCCI Hoang Quang Phong speaking at a meeting on policies and administrative procedures of tax and customs sectors organised by VCCI and the Ministry of Finance in Ha Noi.

Phong said recent adjustments in policies and tax regulation had helped businesses save time and cut costs as well as creating preferences for businesses, however there had been problems updating information and implementation.

“A number of tax offices are sluggish in answering the problems of enterprises, which means they have to find out for themselves, leading to mistakes and incorrect implementation. In addition, the effective time of tax policies is relatively fast, causing enterprises problems," said Phong.

He said businesses wanted improvement to the online declaration system so they could look up information on the paid or unpaid tax amounts as well as deadlines, helping them complete in time and avoid tax issues.

“Businesses proposed the tax sector to take initiative in co-ordinating with other agencies in solving the problems on tax, strengthening publicity and transparence,” said Phong.

Phong wants the customs offices to continue improvements to meet the demand of businesses.

He said they needed to simplify administrative procedures and apply risk management and examination after goods clearance, which would be momentum for building and implementing management policies in the future.

Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said the ministry would study all ideas from businesses. “If they are in trouble due to policies, the ministry will revise and submit to the Government for approval.”

Mai said the ministry had conducted many measures to improve business environment in the past, enhancing the national competitiveness capacity and supporting businesses following the Government’s decrees.

In regards to the tax sector, Mai said the ministry had reviewed and standardised 300 administrative procedures, conducted online tax declaration for over 622,600 businesses, or 99.64 per cent of the total.

“Tax offices have connected to 46 commercial banks for e-payment. About 96 per cent of businesses sent VND392.16 trillion (US$16.77 billion) to the State budget through e-payment,” she said.

Meanwhile, about 74,600 businesses had participated in e-customs declaration, which is being carried out at all customs offices nationwide. The sector had connected to 40 airlines to catch up information on import goods.

Mai said the two sectors’ efforts had been highly-valued by the business community. In the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2018” report, Viet Nam’s business environment ranking lifted by 14 places over the previous year to stand at 68th out of 190 economies, of which the tax payment was seen one of indicators most affecting the general business environment in Viet Nam. — VNS