Customs sector expedites revenue collection in the remaining months of the year

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Many enterprises speed up export orders at the end of the year. Photo: Provided by enterprises.

Considerable difficulties

In 2023, the General Department of Vietnam Customs Department (GDVC) is assigned the revenue target of VND425,000 billion by the National Assembly under Resolution No.69/2022/QH15 dated November 11,2022. The estimate 2023 is based on GDP growth of 6-6.5%; crude oil price is US$70/barrel; Import turnover increases by 8-9%; tariff cuts is implemented under FTAs, and some new FTAs are signed.

To perform the task, the GDVC issued Directive 479/CT-TCHQ on enhancing efficiency of the State revenue, which provides groups of general solutions and specific solutions for each unit to implement in the whole sector.

However, the GDVC assessed that the world economy in the first 10 months of 2023 faces many difficulties and challenges. Most economies in the world saw lower growth than expected, the inflation cools down but remains high level; and military conflicts, fierce competition between major countries, geopolitical instability, food security, natural disasters, and climate change are increasing.

Domestic purchasing power still recovers slowly; production continues to face difficulties due to the lack of orders; the reduced world demand directly affects many manufacturing industries... leading to taxable export turnover in the first 10 months of the year decrease by 22.5% and taxable import turnover drops 15.5% compared to the same period in 2022.

Actively implements six key solutions

Following Telegram No. 990/CD-TTg dated October 21, 2023 of the Prime Minister on drastically implementing solutions to improve access to credit capital and remove difficulties for production activities and perform the revenue collection in 2023; Announcement No. 1030/TB-BTC dated October 31, 2023 of the Ministry of Finance on the implementation of Telegram 990/CD-TTg, the GDVC requires heads of units to direct and perform assigned tasks effectively.

Promote administrative procedure reform and improve the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness; remove difficulties and obstacles for businesses, create favorable conditions for businesses to develop stably, attract investment, increase new production capacity, and boost economic growth, increasing revenue for the state budget; expedite dissemination of information, policies and administrative procedures, diverse supportive methods for businesses at all stages, units and fields.

Review the revenue collection and remain revenues, especially major revenues, ensuring accurate collection and striving to achieve the highest target in 2023.

Officer of My Phuoc Industrial Park Customs Branch, Binh Duong Customs Department. Photo: T.D

In addition to trade facilitation, in order to improve the effectiveness of State management and prevent revenue loss, the GDVC requests units to promote information collection and risk identification to take measures of inspection and supervision; post clearance audit, specialized inspection, prevention of smuggling, trade fraud; to focus on inspecting quantity, value, code, origin and revenue loss.

The GDVC also directs units to inspect name, HS code and tax rate during customs clearance and post clearance audit to detect and handle violations related to false declaration of HS code, name of goods to enjoy special preferential tax rates, focusing on checking items on the list of risky import and export goods. on classification and application of tax rates, especially import and export products subject to the list of risky import and export goods on classification and application of tax rates.

Implement value inspection and rulings while carrying out customs procedures and inspecting customs value and taxable; take measure to check and identify accuracy and truthfulness of customs value declared by businesses to prevent and detect price frauds, thereby providing handling measures in line with the laws.

The GDVC also directs the units to classify debt groups to recover and fulfil the target assigned in Decision No.592/QD-TCHQ dated March 28 to ensure that as of December 31, tax debts are lower than in December 31, 2022.

Strengthen inspection, review and handling of tax-exempt and non-taxable subjects as prescribed in the Law on Export and Import Duty, and Decree 134/2016/ND-CP and Decree 18/2021 /ND-CP of the Government and guiding documents of the Ministry of Finance and the GDVC.

If there are problems during tax exemption procedures related to specialized ministries, units need to report to the GDVC to propose the Ministry of Finance to work with relevant ministries, ensuring tax exemption process in accordance with regulations.

Strictly control tax refund, handle overpaid tax, implement import tax refund, in line with the Law on Import-Export Duty, Law on Tax administration, and implement solutions to combat fraud in tax refund under GDVC’s Official Dispatch No. 356/TCHQ-TXNK dated January 18, 2023.

At the same time, coordinate with the domestic Tax agency and other enforcement forces to prevent fraud in VAT refund.

The GDVC requires units to urgently review the tax amount that must be refunded in 2023, and refund tax for eligible tax payers no later than December 2023, especially tax payers that meet regulations specified in Decree 26/2023/ND-CP, and tax refund for cases of on-spot import-export stipulated in Decree 18/2023/ND-CP….