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An officer of Mong Cai border gate Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department) inspects imported goods. Photo: Quang Hung

It is forecast that revenue in the fourth quarter will plunge

The General Department of Customs said the 4th wave of the Covid-19 pandemic from April in most provinces and cities nationwide has increased difficulties for businesses.

Since the beginning of the year, enterprises imported a lot of raw materials for production due to fear of disease outbreaks in other countries, so at the end of the year, imports will decrease.

Therefore, it is forecast that the revenue in the three remaining months of the year will plunge at least 30-35%, especially in 19 southern provinces (they make up for 51.6% of the total revenue of the customs sector).

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, after October 1, businesses that want to resume operations must meet nine criteria. The number of businesses meeting these nine criteria is really very few.

In addition, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, demand goes down, sales also drop while costs increase, goods circulation was difficult, supply chains are disrupted, workers and experts see the shortage and businesses face difficulties in accessing support packages. Therefore, the revenue of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department is forecasted to be greatly affected in the last three months of the year.

Ha Tinh Customs is considered one of the units reporting high annual revenue. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its revenue in the third quarter saw a sharp decline from the second quarter of 2021 and it is forecast that in the fourth quarter the budget collection will also face many difficulties due to many orders of enterprises being cancelled.

In Binh Duong, the Covid-19 pandemic has been developed in neighboring provinces, which directly affects production and business activities in Binh Duong, leading to stagnation in production activities and reducing import and export turnover, seriously affecting the budget revenue in 2021.

Quang Ninh Customs Department said that the Covid-19 pandemic has halted production, business and transportation activities and reduced demand for gasoline. Moreover, Vietnam National Petroleum Group has reduced imports to consume finished products of domestic refineries and petrochemical plants under the Government's management. The volume of coal inventory is high, while the demand for coal for electricity production decreases, leading to a drop in imported coal in 2021 compared to 2020.

A representative of the Import-Export Tax Department said that the revenue fell 32.2% to VND950-1,100 billion per day since 19 southern provinces and cities implemented social distancing under Directive 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister. The figure will continue to drop in the fourth quarter, as the shipments contracted before the outbreak were sold out in the first three quarters of the year. Meanwhile, now many businesses have stopped production and will not have contracts arising in the fourth quarter.

This representative noted, under Decision 39/2018/QD-TTg dated September 10, 2018 of the Prime Minister on the preferential purchase price of wind power for projects before October 31, 2021, wind power projects rushed to import components, raising revenue of some customs departments from January to September such as: Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Quang Tri. However, the revenue from this item over the rest of the year is lower.

Customs drastically implementing three solutions

As of September 30, the whole Customs revenue rose 25.83% year-on-year to VND285,624 billion or 90.6% of the assigned target, and 86.29% of the desired target.

The budget revenue in the past nine months grew but the representative of the Import-Export Tax Department said the budget collection task of the customs will face many difficulties due to the pandemic. To achieve the target of VND335,000 billion, the Customs sector is drastically implementing solutions.

Speaking at the online meeting to hand over the work of the third quarter and deploy the work program of the fourth quarter of the General Department of Customs on September 29, the Director General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can requested the whole sector to make determined efforts to implement solutions of trade facilitation associated with revenue loss prevention to strive to collect VND335,000 billion (exceeding the whole year’s target VND20,000 billion).

The General Department of Customs requested units in the whole industry to continue strictly performing the tasks assigned in Directive 215/CT-TCHQ. Accordingly, the units need to drastically implement three solutions of trade facilitation, anti-revenue loss through controlling price, code, origin and quantity of goods and problem-solving for businesses.

Customs departments of provinces and cities should focus on reviewing and grasping the tax debt situation; classifying groups of recoverable and irrecoverable debts, organizing the collection and handling of tax debts to gain the assigned targets. The General Department of Customs affirmed that this is one of the criteria for assessing the completion of the revenue collection task for the units.

In addition, local customs departments must regularly assess the state of budget collection and payment at their units and review revenues. Furthermore, local customs department must closely follow tax administration and actively work with other units to advise the Ministry of Finance in developing, amending and supplementing tax laws related to import and export goods.