Ho Chi Minh City Customs: Rapidly handling more than 1,600 billion VND in bad debts

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Officials of the Import-Export Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department review and classify tax debt. Photo: T.H

More than 400 businesses have tax debt of over 1 billion VND

In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department is assigned a state budget revenue estimate of VND 130,800 billion. To complete the assigned estimate, one of the solutions the unit focuses on is tax debt recovery. Recently, the Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department issued a Plan for implementing the collection and handling of tax debt in 2024, assigning specific targets and tasks to under and directly under units, and at the same time asking Heads of units thoroughly to grasp and direct implementation.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, the total overdue tax debt at the unit as of March 14, 2024 is over 1,881 billion VND, from more than 4,800 businesses. Among them, there are more than 400 businesses with debts of over 1 billion VND. Of which, the debt that can be collected is over 234 billion VND. The amount of new debt arising in 2023 that still needs to be recovered is more than 195 billion VND from 300 businesses. Through statistics and monitoring of debt records in 2023, it shows that the majority of debts have been recorded, verified and enforced according to the process of managing tax debt and other revenues for export and import goods issued together with Decision No. 2317/QD-TCHQ dated October 24, 2022 of the General Department of Customs.

According to the assessment of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, outstanding tax debt is due to many reasons. The objective reason is that the debts were incurred long ago, before enforcement measures under the Law on Tax Administration were applied; Subjective reasons, some cases of tax debt due to lack of information lead to slow and untimely application of enforcement measures; Some cases of debts have not been monitored and promptly collected, etc.

To continue effectively implementing tax debt collection, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department directed units to immediately implement measures to urge debt collection. In particular, implement the process of managing tax debt and other revenues for exported and imported goods issued with Decision No. 2317/QD-TCHQ dated October 24, 2022.

Specifically, urge the recovery of tax debt, with solutions such as: issuing tax debt notices, sending business invitations to work at the Customs office, verifying the address and business operating status locally; Verify necessary information to implement enforcement measures, including: bank account information, operating status and legal status of the business, and track down the legal representative of the businesses with tax debt, verification of business registration certificate and equivalent documents, information related to assets of tax debtors according to regulations.

It is necessary to handle more than 1,600 billion VND of bad debts

For cases where more than 90 days have passed since the tax payment deadline but the tax debt has not been recovered, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department requires units to implement solutions based on verified information. Quickly implement enforcement measures according to Article 125 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019. At the same time, supplement and apply missing enforcement measures for long-term debts; Pay attention to applying the final enforcement measure, which is to revoke the Enterprise Registration Certificate, Business Registration Certificate, Investment Registration Certificate, establishment and operation license, and practice license, etc.

Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department also notes that units have issued extension documents for enforcement documents that have expired but have not yet recovered tax debt. After applying an enforcement measure but failing to recover the debt, the implementing units shall issue a notice of individual temporary exit suspension to the taxpayer's legal representative according to the instructions in Article 21 to Article 24, Decision No. 2317/QD-TCHQ dated October 24, 2022.

Uncollectible debts of the total debt of VND 1,650 billion of more than 3,800 businesses are being classified and handled by the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department according to regulations. Among them, there are debts arising from 1994 and 1995 of enterprises operating in processing and export production, with large debts. For example, at the Investment Goods Management Customs Sub-department, there are 184 businesses with tax debt that are difficult to collect, with a total debt of over 417 billion VND; The Customs Sub-department managing processed goods has 334 businesses, with a total debt of over 166 billion VND, etc. In addition, the amount of difficult-to-collect tax debt arising from the operation of post-customs clearance audit is also quite large, with total debt of nearly 115 billion VND of 67 businesses.

To thoroughly handle the above mentioned difficult-to-recover debts, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department directed units to base on the actual debt situation to determine the work that still needs to be done and develop a detailed plan of handling tax debt at the unit. For debts that have been incurred for more than 10 years, the plan must focus on classifying documents with large amounts of debt, meeting the conditions for debt handling, and completing documents to freeze and write off debts.

Of the 4,800 businesses that owe taxes at the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, there are more than 1,800 businesses that are no longer operating at their business registration address or have stopped operating (corresponding to more than 1,300 billion VND in debt); Nearly 200 businesses have had their Business Registration Certificates revoked (equivalent to more than 400 billion VND in debt).