Budget collection challenges of Ho Chi Minh City Customs in the second half of the year

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Ho Chi Minh City Customs officers inspect imported goods. Photo: T.H

Revenue reached 46.64% of the ordinance estimate

In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department was assigned a state budget revenue estimate of VND 130,800 billion, an increase of 7.4% compared to the state budget revenue in 2023. The 2024 estimate was built on the basis of GDP in 2024 increasing by 6 - 6.5%. One of the solutions that Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department focuses on is reforming administrative procedures, creating favorable conditions for businesses, so the number of businesses carrying out import-export procedures through the area has increased significantly.

Information at the recent 6-month review conference of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department in 2024, the leader of this unit said that in the first half of the year, the whole Department carried out procedures for over 50,000 import-export enterprises, an increase of nearly 5%; with nearly 1.6 million import-export declarations, an increase of 5.59%; Total turnover reached 61.05 billion USD, up 7.04% (an increase of 4.02 billion USD) over the same period in 2023. Notably, both import and export turnover increased sharply. Specifically, import turnover reached 31.7 billion USD, up 4.57% (an increase of 1.38 billion USD); Export turnover reached 29.34 billion USD, up 9.85% (an increase of 2.63 billion USD) compared to the same period in 2023.

According to the leader of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, although imported goods through Ho Chi Minh City port in the first half of the year increased compared to the same period, the unit's state budget revenue only reached 61,007.3 billion VND, equal to 46.64% of the ordinance estimate, down 4.12% (an absolute decrease of 2,622.3 billion VND) compared to the same period in 2023. With this result, according to the calculation of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, the average state budget revenue per day in the first 6 months of the year was 324.9 billion VND, while to complete the state budget revenue target, the average daily revenue must reach 358.4 billion VND.

Analysis of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department shows that, in the context of the import-export turnover in Ho Chi Minh City tending to increase; Accordingly, the total import-export turnover reached 55.8 billion USD, an increase of about 8%, but the State budget revenue of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department decreased compared to the same period in 2023. The reason, according to Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, is that the import-export turnover of the main groups of goods in the first 6 months of 2024 increased compared to the same period in 2023. However, the whole automobiles of all kinds, accounting for about 13% of the State budget revenue structure, decreased sharply in quantity (19.3%) and value (35.4%), leading to a decrease in the amount of tax collected from the State budget by nearly 45% (equivalent to nearly 6,000 billion VND) compared to the same period in 2023.

In addition, many imported goods with high tax rates have had their taxes reduced, and will be reduced even more deeply in the following years according to the tariff reduction roadmap committed in the FTAs; Some items affected by the VAT reduction policy (from 10% to 8%) according to Resolution 101/2023/QH15 dated June 24, 2023 also affect the budget collection of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department. It is estimated that the VAT revenue has decreased in the first 5 months of 2024 by 2,000 billion VND, etc.

Focus on collection solutions

From the above challenges, in order to nurture the state budget revenue and promote trade flows, completing the state budget collection task in 2024, in the second half of the year, the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department thoroughly promoted administrative reform, modernization, and trade facilitation for the business community; in which special attention was paid to continuing to develop the Customs - Business partnership through organizing dialogue conferences, training, coaching, disseminating legal policies to people and businesses, etc thereby nurturing revenue sources.

The Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department previously issued a Directive to continue to strengthen discipline and order when performing official duties, uphold the sense of responsibility, and successfully complete the task of collecting the State budget in 2024. According to the assessment of the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, in the past time, although the Party Committees, leaders at all levels, Party members, and civil servants have made great efforts in collecting the State budget, the results achieved are still not high. In order to promptly overcome the shortcomings and limitations, create motivation and demonstrate the determination of the entire political system of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department to successfully complete the task in 2024, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department requires Party Committees and heads of units to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement many solutions to perform the task of collecting the State budget.

At the same time, strengthen monitoring, synthesizing, analyzing, evaluating and forecasting the state budget collection situation to promptly develop specific action plans in each period to ensure the highest achievement of the assigned legal targets.

In addition to trade facilitation, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department will focus on a number of solutions to prevent state budget revenue loss through post-clearance inspection; price consultation; anti-smuggling, trade fraud; specialized inspection and examination, etc. In which, it focuses on checking and reviewing the Lists with high risks in value, risks in goods classification and tax rate application; regularly reviewing Green lane declarations, cleared shipments, one item but declaring many different codes or inconsistent classification analysis results to promptly collect taxes due to incorrect code application, preventing businesses from taking advantage of the law's flexibility to cheat on codes and tax rates; synchronously implementing professional measures to inspect, consult, and determine taxable value in accordance with regulations. In particular, the price consultation organization needs to clarify the basis for suspicion, the basis for rejecting the value and re-determine the transaction value in accordance with regulations to limit the occurrence of complaints.

In the first 6 months of 2024, through the above operations, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department increased revenue for the State budget by over 100 billion VND. Of which, the largest increase in State budget revenue came from price consultation operations, with nearly 64 billion VND.