Strive for task of state revenue collection

Facilitating taxpayer, support enterprises is one of key solutions to complete the 2018 estimates. Photo: H. Van.

Keep up the progress

According to the Ministry of Finance, in the first months of 2018, GDP increased by 7.38%, the highest increase compared to the same period over the past 10 years. This is a positive result, facilitating Vietnam’s economy to develop in the next quarters. At the same time, CPI of March 2018 decreased by 0.27% compared to February 2018, and the total value of import and export goods increased 2.66% compared to the same period last year, and increased 0.97% compared to December 2017. In March 2018, the total value of import and export goods reached $US 38.8 billion, increasing 36.8% compared to the last month. In the quarter, total import and export turnover of the whole country reached $US 107.32 billion, increasing by 17.7% compared to the same period last year. Vietnam’s trade balance in March 2018 has a surplus of $US 800 million, thereby improving Vietnam’s trade surplus over 3 months to reach $US 1.3 billion. That is creating favorable conditions for State revenue collection.

In the first quarter of 2018, the total State budget collection reached 308.48 trillion VND, equal to 23.4% of the estimates, increasing by 5.3% compared to the same period in 2017. In which: the domestic collection reached 253.1 trillion VND, equal to 23% of the estimates, increasing by 7.2% compared to the same period in 2017. Excluding specialized revenue (land use, lottery, dividends and profit after tax of SOEs), the rest of domestic revenue is estimated at 209 trillion VND, equal to 24.1% of the estimates, increasing by 10.9% compared to the same period in 2017.

Specifically, FDI sector reached 22.5% of the estimates, up by 8.7%; personal income tax reached 27.1% of the estimates; Charges and fees reached 24.6% of the estimates. For non-state economic sector, the revenue reached 25.7% - the highest level in direct revenues from production and business. The positive result in domestic revenue, according to the Ministry of Finance, is caused by a high economic growth rate and the fact that from January 1, 2018, with all revenues from joint stock companies the State holding shares for dominance was adjusted from the SOE sector to the sector. (the private sector)?

However, the adjustment of revenue made the revenue from the SOE sector only reach an average of 21.5% of the estimates. In addition, domestic revenue is quite good due to the tax authorities having focused on collecting revenue right at the beginning of the year, reviewing, grasping the objects and revenue sources of the budget in the area; inspecting the tax declaration and tax settlement of enterprises to correctly and fully collect into the State budget.

According to the Ministry of Finance, it is estimated that 49 of 63 localities have domestic revenue reaching the estimated budgets (over 24%), of which 32 localities collected over 26% of the estimates; 43/63 localities have higher revenue than the same period; 20 localities have lower revenue than the same period.

Notably, revenue from crude oil in the first quarter was quite good compared to the general progress. The revenue was 13.2 trillion vnd, equal to 36.9% of the estimates. Revenue from crude oil was high as crude oil prices in the world market from the end of December 2017 to now have remained at a satisfactory level; oil price paid is at $US 67.2 / barrel, increasing by $US 17.2/ barrel compared to the estimates.

In the first quarter, the State revenue of the entire Customs sector reached 68,027 billion VND, equal to 24.04% of the estimates, reaching 2.2% of the target, decreasing by 2.16% compared to the same period in 2017. Although the import and export turnover of the first 3 months increased compared to the same period in the last year, however, due to the effect from FTAs and new policies in 2018, the state budget revenue in the first 3 months of 2018 decreased compared to the same period last year.

To complete the task of state budget collection in 2018, the first solution group that the units in the Customs sector has been implementing is to develop detailed solutions to facilitate enterprises, focus on implementing the major projects of the sector: the project management, customs clearance at seaports and airports; Project management of processed goods, export production; the project of tax collection and clearance 24/7... to facilitate import and export activities, prevent business from taking advantage of policy gaps for profiteering... to increase state budget revenue.

For the fight against tax losses, the problem of tax classification and application is paid attention by the Customs units. At the same time, focusing on the collection of recoverable debt, not to generate debts, especially the debts after inspection, post-customs clearance inspection, and dealing with outstanding debts in inspection and examination.

There are many potential risks

Despite the positive result, there are many challenges and potential risks that will impact on the socio-economic development and the financial tasks for the state budget in 2018. They are: The increase of protectionism, especially in some of Vietnam's major trading partners; tightening monetary policy which is combined with the race to adjust tax incentives by many major economies has impacted on international capital inflows. Along with that, in the country the fiscal policy balance is not much, while the demand for resources for economic development, ensuring social security, natural disasters happen unpredictably…

Sharing about the efforts of the Financial sector, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the State Budget Department, Ministry of Finance, said that based on the Government's Resolution No. 01/ NQ-CP, right from the beginning of the year the Minister of Finance has signed the Decision No. 16/ QD-BTC to promulgate the Action Plan to implement the tasks assigned by the Ministry of Finance, with 8 groups of key tasks, 244 specific tasks; consisting of 61 tasks chaired by the Ministry of Finance and 183 tasks coordinated with ministries, central and local agencies. In particular, the plan assigned the work to each unit and organization under its management, with the time to complete each specific task in the year.

Some important projects that the Ministry of Finance has to implement are as follows: Strive to reach an increase of 3% of budget revenue compared to the estimates assigned by the National Assembly; organize evaluation of the application of specific financial mechanisms for a number of sectors, and gradually reduce the application of special mechanisms to state management tasks; formulate a report on the limit of ODA loans and foreign preferential loans in the period of 2018 - 2020, etc. Based on the action plan, the Ministry of Finance has focused on directing the units to implement drastically. The deadline set for each task, which is determined to achieve the highest goals for the financial tasks of the State budget in 2018, was decided by the National Assembly.

In order to achieve the state budget target for revenue in 2018 with an increase of 3% compared with the National Assembly's estimation, the Finance sector must closely coordinate with the ministries, branches, committees and local authorities, mobilize and take the implementation of the whole political system to support the business community and the people, to better manage revenue, focus on exploiting revenue and expansion of the tax base. In addition, tax authorities and customs will continue implementing synchronously and effectively solutions to enhance budget revenue management from the first days of the first month of 2018. In the implementation, accelerate the fight against loss, transfer, smuggling, trade fraud, tax evasion; strive to handle tax arrears, reduce the tax debt to under 5% of the total State budget revenue.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance will continue to reform tax and customs procedures and promptly remove difficulties and problems in order to create favorable conditions for taxpayers and support businesses to develop production and business, contributing to fulfilling and exceeding the target of economic growth for the whole year, thus ensuring revenue for the state budget.