The dialogue between VCCI, MOF and businesses on September 20
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) was assigned to amend 132 documents in a bid to streamline708 administrative procedures, said Mr. Ngo Hai Phan, Head of Government Office’s Department of Administrative Procedures Reform.
The tax sector alone has 30documents and 233 administrative procedures thereof that need to be changed, followed by customs with 27 documents and 135 administrative procedures.
The task was performed quickly in the tax sector. So far, 26 documents and 199 administrative procedures have been amended. The remaining documents will be dealt with later when the Law on Tax Management is revised.
The project on Modernization in state budget collection for
axation-customs-treasury-finance has been carried out in 53 provinces. By the end of August, 2011 about 40,000 enterprises had registered to use tax return software.
In the customs sector, 23 documents and 126 administrativeprocedures have been revised. E-customs has been piloted in 20 out of 23 provincial customs departments and the number of electronic customs procedures has reached 68 per cent.
The number of enterprises having registered to attend e-customs is over 42,000.
Firms hail the efforts, urging for more According to a VCCI report, more than 90 per cent of enterprises surveyed highly
appreciated the effort of tax and customs procedure reform made recently, which they claimed had helped their business
.
Over 90 per cent of the interviewed enterprises appreciated the effort of tax and customs procedure reform
Lots of them have recognized the positive results of administrative reform to the reduction of printing, traveling cost and time. The General Department of Customs estimated that the reform of administrative procedures has helped to save VND703 billion annually for the state budget and businesses.
"However, many problems hindering enterprises' operations were still revealed, which requires greater effort to tackle," VCCI Vice President Pham Gia Tuc said. According to Tuc, the inconsistency in legal documents aswell as the lack of up-to-date information has caused confusion in implementing tax and customs- related operations.
Tax exemptions and extensions applied to enterprises had been controversial and were in need of detailed regulations, he added.
He also said restricting to tax and customs officials was also a barrier.
According to Hoang Manh Thang from the Thanh Hoa Construction Company, the basisto assess a product's price for taxation must be clarified to avoid losses to businesses, some of which have been taxed twice for the one item.
Deputy General Director of the Garment 10 CorporationHoang Minh Khang agreed, saying wiping out these obstacles would ensure competition among enterprises and improve the work with customs and tax agencies.
According to Deputy Minister of Finance Hoang Anh Tuan, the application of information technology in customs and tax operations would help boost efficiency. The pilot application of e-customs was ongoing and the model would be replicatedthroughout the country to help simplify tax and customs procedures.
A draft amendment to the law on tax management would aim to modernise and simplify tax procedures while enhancing tax management capacities, emphasised Tuan. In addition,decrees on value-added tax, corporate income tax and special consumption tax would also be amended to ensure equality.
The ministry also aims to provide electronic tax services to about 80 per cent of businessesthroughout the country by 2015.
Tax and customs procedures simplification would continue to be the focus of the Ministry in the coming time, the Minister said.
By DUNG MINH