Ha Tinh Customs faces many difficulties in budget collection

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Finished steel at Formosa Hung Nghiep Steel Corporation. Photo: H.Nu

Revenue shortfall from top enterprises

According to statistics from the Ha Tinh Customs Department, in the first nine months, the total import-export turnover through the area reached US$4,342.6 million, down 9.3%; taxable trade turnover reached US$2,574.1 million, down 3% compared to the same period in 2023.

Specifically, the turnover of some taxable import and export items increased such as: exported wood chips reached US$123.5 million, up 38.6%; exported construction stone US$4.7 million, up 95.2%; imported iron ore reached US$812.3 million, up 9.3%; imported coal US$794.19 million, up 2.5%.

Some imported items decreased sharply such as: oil reached US$26 million, down 19%; wood of all kinds US$7.7 million, down 6%; ferro alloy US$30.78 million, down 16.7%; machinery and equipment of all kinds US$349.6 million, down 10.8%.

The estimated state budget revenue of Ha Tinh Customs Department in 2024 is more than VND9,400 billion. As of September 30, Ha Tinh Customs only collected VND 6,376.30 billion, equal to 67.83% of the estimate, down 0.09% over the same period in 2023.

According to Vung Ang Port Customs Branch, as of September 30, the unit processed 3,834 declarations with import-export turnover through Vung Ang Port of US$3,982.2 million, down 8.5%; remitted to State budget VND 6,182 billion, equal to 70% of the target.

According to Mr. Dinh Van Hoa, Deputy Director of Ha Tinh Customs Department, the tax revenue collected by Vung Ang Port Customs Branch mainly arose from a number of items such as: coal (VND 2,551.8 billion); iron ore (VND 2,168.12 billion); ferro alloy (VND 93.91 billion); scrap (VND 186.74 billion); fuel oil (VND 69.1 billion); exported goods such as blast furnace slag (VND 6.30 billion); wood chips (VND 58.48 billion); construction stone (VND 32.16 billion).

Meanwhile, as of September 30, Formosa Ha Tinh remitted about VND 4,733.4 billion in import-export tax to the budget; Vung Ang 2 Thermal Power Company Limited VND 376.97 billion; V-G High-Tech Energy Solutions Company Limited VND 239.07 billion and Giang Nam Petroleum Company Limited VND 68.95 billion.

Mr. Dinh Van Hoa analyzed that since the beginning of the year, the operations of Formosa Ha Tinh and a number of other enterprises have encountered many difficulties in terms of input fuel, increasing prices, increasing production costs, while the consumption market has decreased. This is the main factor leading to a sharp decrease in the revenue of Vung Ang Customs.

Not only the import-export activities of enterprises through Vung Ang port are facing difficulties, but many enterprises with import-export activities through Cau Treo international border gate are also facing difficulties, prices of raw materials, fuel, and input materials are increasing; production costs are increasing; the product consumption market is narrowing, prolonged losses lead to large inventories of goods.

Notably, from August 2023 to now, National Highway 8 to Cau Treo international border gate is still under repair and the road on the Lao side is still being maintained and repaired for landslides, but the slow progress has caused the volume of goods through Cau Treo international border gate to decrease sharply.

As of September 30, the revenue of Cau Treo international border gate Customs Branch reached VND162.03 billion, equal to 29% of the target, down 67.3% compared to the same period in 2023. This revenue mainly comes from ore and cassava starch.

Closely following the collection scenario

At the end of September, the Vung Ang Port Customs Branch completed customs clearance procedures for the Loch Crinan ship (Panama nationality) carrying more than 54,000 tons of imported coal from Indonesia to the Vung Ang - Son Duong port of the Vung Ang 2 Thermal Power Plant.

This is a batch of imported raw materials for the plant's trial production and this batch has been paid to the State budget over VND20 billion.

According to Mr. Hoang Trong Binh, Deputy General Director of Vung Ang 2 Thermal Power Company Limited, initially, the company imported coal for trial production. After this batch, in the coming months, the company is expected to continue importing two more batches of coal with a quantity doubling that of the first batch.

During the trial production process, the company will evaluate the production efficiency of using imported and domestic coal to have an optimal plan to ensure production and business activities when the plant officially comes into operation.

Also in September, Vung Ang Port Customs Branch also cleared the import shipment of machinery and equipment for the wind power project of KPB Joint Stock Company (Hai Phong). This is one of 12 new enterprises that Vung Ang Customs has attracted to open declarations in 2024, thereby contributing more revenue to the unit.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Chien, Deputy Head of Vung Ang Port Customs Branch, said that for a long time, the unit's budget revenue has depended on Formosa Ha Tinh for more than 90%. However, since the beginning of the year, the enterprise's operations have encountered difficulties in terms of input fuel, increasing prices and production costs, while the consumption market has decreased, leading to a decrease in revenue for Vung Ang Customs.

To make up for the shortfall in revenue, the unit has made efforts to invite new enterprises to open declarations.

In addition to increasing the attraction of new enterprises to open declarations, Vung Ang Customs also continues to promote administrative reform, simplify customs procedures; promptly remove obstacles, create favorable conditions to attract import-export enterprises, investors to implement projects in the area. At the same time, directly talking to and removing obstacles for enterprises.

To complete the target of c state budget revenue in the last three months of the year, Ha Tinh Customs still has to collect nearly VND3,000 billion. Considering the actual situation of revenue sources, Ha Tinh Customs realizes that it is very difficult to fulfill the target.

Therefore, to make efforts to ensure the highest revenue, Ha Tinh Customs Department will closely follow the collection scenario, proactively deploy synchronous solutions. In particular, Ha Tinh Customs will actively grasp the situation of major projects related to import-export activities in Ha Tinh province to have a plan to attract and facilitate enterprises.

At the same time, urging units to effectively implement programs and plans on tax policies, value, commodity coding, and budget collection to ensure budget collection on schedule and plan set out.