Minister of Finance: Efforts to increase revenue without affecting "health" of businesses

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National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks at the meeting of 13th group. Photo: HD

According to the program of the 7th Session, on the morning of May 23, the National Assembly discussed in groups: additional assessment of the results of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and state budget in 2023; the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and state budget in the first months of 2024; and the implementation of thrift practices and waste combat in 2023.

It is necessary to introduce reasonable solutions to fulfil targets that have not achieved

National Assembly delegates highly appreciated the results achieved on the socio-economic situation in 2023 and the first months of 2024, thereby helping the economy regain growth momentum. Delegates also said that the management work of the Government and sectors is decisive, helping to stabilize the macro economy, ensure growth, control inflation, and limit trade at a reasonable level.

In addition, National Assembly delegates also pointed out shortcomings and asked the Government to evaluate and find solutions. According to delegate Nguyen Thanh Phuong (Can Tho delegation), in 2023, 5/15 targets have not completed, such as GDP growth was low, industrial density has not reached... The delegate said that, in addition to the cause due to the difficult economic situation, the planning of targets is not close to reality. The Government needs to have in-depth analysis of the causes to calculate reasonable solutions.

Delegate Ta Thi Yen (Dien Bien delegation) also acknowledged some abnormal market fluctuations such as the gold, real estate, and corporate bond markets in recent times. Delegate Yen said that it is necessary to have direction soon to remove difficulties, stabilize the situation and strengthen communication to clarify causes in order to avoid negative impacts on the economy and psychological disturbance of people.

Giving further direction on this issue at Group 13, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that in 2023, the growth of export turnover and consumption has not reached the target, the real estate market remained quiet and the growth rate of private investment decreased... so the Government needs to have more specific assessments to come up with solutions in the near future.

The National Assembly Chairman said that the important issue is the sustainability of growth drivers, it is necessary to manage the gold and foreign currency markets appropriately, not to impact the domestic market; along with that, we must focus on developing the private economy, orienting FDI appropriately, being proactive in the face of the 4.0 technology revolution, promoting the economic structure towards diversification, increasing the resilience of the economy in the face of unpredictable changes.

Many initiatives to increase revenue and support businesses

Along with macroeconomic stability, National Assembly delegates also raised the issue of the fact that budget revenue in 2023 was less than in 2022. According to delegate Nguyen Thanh Phuong, the budget must increase to be able to spend for economic and social activities.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc speaks at the discussion at Group 8. Photo: HD

Regarding this issue, discussing at Group 8, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc - representative of the National Assembly of Binh Dinh province, said that 2022 was the first year implementing electronic invoices (from July 1 /2022), so revenue increases significantly from previously uncollected amounts. 2022 was also the year the Ministry of Finance has collected real estate transfer tax in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration, collected tax on cross-border e-commerce platforms, and performed lucky invoice lottery.

Analyzing 2023, the Minister of Finance assessed that domestic tax revenue decreased by VND 27,000 billion, or 2% compared to 2022, revenue from crude oil alone reached 79% of the plan due to the impact of price fluctuations. Crude oil price in 2022 was 104.7 USD/barrel but in 2023 it dropped to 88 USD/barrel, reducing budget revenue by VND16,000 billion. Another problem is the import and export of 2023 due to the influence of the war situation between Russia and Ukraine, inflation causing countries to tighten spending, so revenue from import and export decreased by VND66,800 billion, reaching 76.6%. plan.

From the above issues, Minister Ho Duc Phoc stated that the Ministry of Finance has tried to find all solutions and measures to increase budget revenue without affecting the "financial health" and production and business of enterprises. That means finding ways to collect potential revenues.

Specifically, there are previously uncollectible amounts such as cross-border e-commerce platforms, but now there are 93 foreign technology organizations such as Youtube, Google, Facebook, Microsoft... that have declared and paid taxes on the electronic information portal. The Ministry of Finance's cross-border e-commerce tax payment system has currently collected VND 14,500 billion. In 2024, we have also focused on collecting taxes on domestic e-commerce platforms and online trade, so we have connected the database of the Tax agency and the population database of the Ministry of Public Security, coordinated with the State Bank to control payment, increase non-cash payments... so in the past two quarters, about VND50,000 billion VND has been collected from these amounts.

With these results, the Minister stated that this is a great effort of the Ministry of Finance, which must be innovative, legal, and at the forefront of new technology in difficult economic conditions to increase revenue. The Ministry of Finance has developed electronic invoice control software to prevent fraud in VAT refunds. The Tax Agency has promoted creativity to come up with measures and initiatives such as lucky invoice lottery to encourage people to collect invoices. Petrol stations nationwide in a very short time have achieved 100% issuance of invoices for each sale, the data has been connected to Tax agency data.

Speaking more about activities to boost people's strength and support businesses, Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that in the first six months of 2024 and the past three years, taxes and fees have been exempted. The last six months of 2024, the Ministry of Finance is submitting to the National Assembly Standing Committee to include in the meeting agenda a proposal on continued VAT reduction.

"These are solutions that both support businesses but also increase revenues", the Minister of Finance emphasized.