Focus on completing key tasks of Finance sector

	Finance sector continues to improve the efficiency of anti-corruption
	Finance sector conducts inspections and propose administrative fine of more than VND 40,000 billion in first 6 months
	Finance sector proactive and pioneering in fiscal policies management for economic growth

The video conference at the Ministry of Finance.

Quickly, urgently but must handle the risk of tax refund

Speaking at the conference from the General Department of Taxation's video conference on the implementation of the electronic invoice system, Acting Director of the General Department of Taxation Mai Xuan Thanh said that the e-invoice system has been implemented synchronously since 2022, the running of this system has promoted positive effects, bringing many benefits to the business community, reducing the cost of issuing invoices, helping trade in goods faster and the corporate governance better.

For tax authorities, since the system was launched, the tax authorities have detected many invoice frauds. The tax agency and the police agencies have been working closely to investigate cases.

According to Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh, the effective running of the e-invoice system helped the business environment healthier, this is an urgent requirement of people and businesses, and also a management requirement of the tax agency.

Following the direction of the Ministry of Finance, the tax sector has strongly employed artificial intelligence to detect abnormal signs to identify suspects. Recently, on the basis of the features of the e-invoice system, the tax sector has applied a system to prevent enterprises from issuing invoices to sell goods they do not have. Currently, the tax sector is trying to upgrade this system to become an automated system to prevent the illegal issuance of invoices.

Regarding VAT refund, Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh said that following the direction of the Prime Minister and Minister, in June and July 2023, the General Department of Taxation issued many guiding documents and sent inspection delegations to work directly with the big tax departments and organized meetings to speed up the progress. As a result, the tax refund in June and July were more positive than in the previous months.

Leaders of the General Department of Taxation also affirmed that they will resolutely fight against tax refund fraud. "The General Department of Taxation will closely follow the tax refund estimate plan assigned in 2023 in the spirit of speed and urgency, but handling the risk of tax refund," said Mai Xuan Thanh.

Budget collection pressure will increase at the end of the year

Regarding the implementation of the 2023 budget estimate, Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh said that up to now, the tax sector's revenue reached 64.5% of the estimate, reaching the assigned schedule. But from July, the policies on tax and fee reduction will have a certain impact on revenue, the budget collection pressure will therefore increase.

Regarding the 2024 budget estimation, Acting Director General Mai Xuan Thanh said that through meetings with local authorities, it was shown that the 2024 budget revenue forecast would be extremely difficult.

Speaking at the meeting from the video conference at the General Department of Customs, Mr. Nguyen Van Can, the Director General of the General Department of Customs said, as of August 7, the customs revenue achieved 50% of the target, reducing 17% year-on-year, equivalent to a decrease of VND 50 trillion.

Regarding the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and the national security among more than 1,000 law violations, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said, the customs authorities have taken the initiative in controlling customs areas, especially border gate, airline, express to prevent drug.

Director General of the General Department of Customs Nguyen Van Can speaks at the video conference at the General Department of Customs

“We conducted 100% screening checks, from small to big packages, according to which, more than 100 kg of drugs were seized in July, bringing the seized drug amount in the seven months to nearly 1,300 kg, of which the seized drug via air is more than 700kg.

Proposing to the Ministry of Finance about the difficulties and obstacles of the Customs sector related to trade facilitation and anti-smuggling, especially the fight against drugs, the leader of the General Department of Customs said that the procurement of IT systems, equipment, and luggage scanners by the Customs in the past two years has been stalled due to problems in procurement procedures, which makes the modern IT equipment and the digital transformation of the customs sector are almost standing still, in need of help

Focus on completing the 2023 revenue estimate

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan asked the units to continue sticking to the tasks and solutions set out at the conference to summarize the performance in the first six months of the Ministry of Finance.

Regarding the finalization of the global minimum tax policy, Deputy Minister Cao Anh Tuan said that at the meeting session for law-making in July 2023, the Government assigned the Ministry of Finance to expeditiously note the opinions of the Government members and the appraisal opinion of the Ministry of Justice, complete the application for the formulation of a Resolution on the application of additional corporate income tax in accordance with the regulation to prevent the erosion of the global tax base to report to the Government.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance is required to work with the Ministry of Justice to report to the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee on adding this Resolution to the 2023 Law and Ordinance Development Program, draft brief procedures to submit to the National Assembly for approval at the 6th meeting (October 2023). Therefore, the Deputy Minister requested the General Department of Taxation to coordinate with relevant units to focus on completing this task.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc delivered a speech at the Conference.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc praised the performance in July 2023 of the attached units. The Minister asked the units to strengthen discipline, solidarity, and support for each other, focusing on completing the key tasks of the Finance sector.

In particular, the Minister emphasized that until the end of the year, the Finance sector needs to focus on completing the state budget revenue estimate in 2023. Failure to complete the budget revenue estimate means that the Ministry of Finance does not complete its tasks. Therefore, in the context of the business community facing many difficulties, striving to complete the revenue estimate requires great effort from the whole sector.

Along with that, the Minister emphasized, units must complete the 2024 budget estimate to submit to the National Assembly for consideration in October. The development of an appropriate budget estimate will help the implementation easier.

Assigning tasks to the tax sector, Minister Ho Duc Phoc strongly requested the tax sector to strengthen the fight against fraudulent e-invoices, quickly detect violations and give warnings; send officials to inspect suspicious cases; pay special attention to tax refunds in compliance with the conditions and regulations of the law.

The Minister assigned the Customs sector to continue strengthening the fight against smuggling and trade fraud; closely monitor import and export turnover to promptly advise the Ministry and the Government. The Minister also noted that the Customs sector must pay special attention to the issue of anti-money laundering.

Regarding the construction and completion of financial mechanisms and policies, the Minister asked the units to accelerate the completion of the law project documents to submit to the National Assembly for comments such as the Law on Management and Use of State Capital to invest in production and business at the enterprise (amended); Law on Special Consumption Tax (amended); Law on Value Added Tax (amended)...