Ministry to intensify financial inspections

Tran Huy Truong, deputy chief inspector at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), made the statement at a press conference held by the MoF in Hanoi on October 13, discussing the ministry’s financial inspection and supervision work during the first nine months of this year.

“Over the past few years, the work of financial inspection and management has improved a lot, with inspection and examination work carried out on a larger scale and at higher quality, with deeper engagement and efforts from agencies of all sectors at all levels,” said Truong.

According to Truong, during the first nine months of 2017, the entire financial sector conducted a total of 67,200 inspections.

During the period, proposals for fines totaled VND13.6 trillion (US$600 million) and administrative penalties hit VND2.2 trillion. More than VND8.9 trillion was contributed to the State budget during this period of time through fines and penalties, he said.

Pham Ngoc Lai, acting head of the General Department of Taxation’s inspection pision, said at the conference that recently, tax authorities have intensified tax inspections.

He added that the inspections were performed on a large scale and focused more on enterprises posing high tax risks; those which have not been subject to tax inspection for many years; have incurred consecutive losses; expanded their investment or changed in ownership or those engaged in significant transactions.

In the first nine months, tax authorities at all levels performed nearly 58,000 site inspections and examinations at enterprises.

There were nearly 350,000 tax returns documents examined at tax agencies. Tax authorities retrieved some VND11.5 trillion that would have been otherwise lost to fraud.

According to Lai, with careful preparation and experiences learned from previous tax inspections, some enterprises filed their taxes correctly.

However, others were not prepared for the tax inspections, prolonging the work of tax inspectors and causing additional taxes and even penalties to be levied.

“This adversely impacts business operations, undermining the enterprise’s branding due to non-compliance with tax regulations,” he said.

Regarding the customs sector, a representative of the General Department’s Inspection Division said the post-customs clearance inspection showed significant improvement this year, with more than 6,200 inspections carried out, collecting VND1.5 trillion through fines of violations and contributing VND750 billion to the State Budget.

Over 10,000 cases of smuggling and trade fraud worth VND410 billion were uncovered through anti-smuggling investigations.

Truong said that the MoF would continue to work to ensure efficient inspections and examinations for the rest of this year.

The MoF would prepare for extraordinary inspections or examinations to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Law on Inspection.

Truong also said inspection authorities should cooperate to maximise efficiency and regularly report their status to promptly deal with issues in the inspection process.

The MoF would soon map out the financial inspection plan for 2018 under the guidance of the Government Inspectorate while following the requirements of the financial sector.