Tax – Customs policies are the motivation helping enterprises to recover and grow

Scene of the forum

Vietnam's economy recovers positively post-pandemic

The Tax – Customs Forum in 2022 with the topic: Tax – Customs Policies: Support socio-economic recovery and development" held by Vietnam Financial Times on October 19.

At the forum, many opinions assessed that the fiscal policies and solutions are launched timely, create a positive impact and are highly appreciated by the business community and people, contributing significantly to the recovery and development of the business, people and the economy in recent times.

Implementing the directives of the Party, the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance actively reviews the legal system and proposes to launch many solutions synchronously to remove difficulties for enterprises and people.

The Ministry of Finance has exempted and reduced tax charges and extended some taxes to remove difficulties for the business production of enterprises and people. In 2022, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Government and competent authorities for promulgation and continued implementation of policies to collect state revenue, support recovery and promote the economy following the spirit of Resolution No. 43/2022/ QH15 of the National Assembly and Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP of the Government.

It is estimated that the policies of reducing taxes and fees for businesses and people in 2022 that have been issued will reach a scale of about VND233 trillion - the highest number ever.

The Ministry of Finance's fiscal policy management contributed to the country's economic growth in 2022, whereby Vietnam's GDP growth rate in the third quarter of 2022 reached 13.67 % over the same period - the highest level in the same period in the past 12 years.

Vietnam's economy recovered positively after the pandemic. Economic growth in 2022 is forecasted to exceed the target and be among the top in the world thanks to implementing flexible, synchronous and appropriate policies for controlling inflation, stabilizing the macro-economy, etc.

Tax – Customs focuses on digital transformation

Speaking at the forum, Deputy Director General of Taxation Dang Ngoc Minh said that, with the motto of taking people and businesses as the centre to serve, over the years, the tax sector has always made efforts to reform and modernize the management, from completing the legal environment to developing infrastructure, providing electronic tax services in the direction of integration and concentration, meeting the requirements of e-Government, towards a digital government.

According to the General Department of Taxation leader, in the first nine months of 2022, the General Department of Taxation has submitted to the Ministry to issue three decisions announcing the abolition of 114 administrative procedures and 47 new administrative procedures. Furthermore, based on the decision on the publication of administrative procedures, the General Department of Taxation has implemented 103 out of 234 online public services at levels 3 and 4 and integrated 97 online public services at levels 3 and 4 on the National Public Service Portal.

The General Department of Taxation also maintains a unified system of 479 information channels to support taxpayers from the General Department of Taxation to 63 Tax Departments and 413 Tax Branches to operate regularly, continuously and smoothly 24/7.

In particular, the Tax sector has been implementing many solutions to promote reform and application of information technology and modernize tax administration, such as: deploying electronic invoices; deploying electronic tax services; deploying e-tax services on mobile devices and e-portals for foreign providers; deploying system integration with the National Database on Population…

In the field of customs, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs Luu Manh Tuong informed that the requirements and development viewpoints of Customs in the Vietnam Customs Development Strategy to 2030 as follows: "Taking reforms and modernization as the basis, modernization of customs management model as the core, accelerating the implementation of digital transformation in the Customs sector as the foundation for Customs development in the new period". At the same time, the Customs sector determined the target to complete Digital Customs by 2025.

Facing the international trend, the necessity of the modernization cycle and the implementation of policies and guidelines of the Party, Government and leaders at all levels on promoting digitization, digital transformation and technological application of the Industry Revolution 4.0, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has developed and promulgated the Digital Transformation Plan of the Customs sector to 2025, with orientation to 2030 in Decision No. 707/QD-TCHQ dated May 4, 2022.

In particular, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has set a goal to achieve by 2025, which is to complete Digital Customs and set out three tasks from 2021 to 2025:

Firstly, promoting digital transformation in customs operations: Complete the overall redesign of the information technology system to meet the requirements of performing customs operations towards Digital Customs and the requirements on information security.

Secondly, promoting digital transformation in the implementation of the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window to ensure synchronization with the digital transformation of customs operations and businesses towards digitization and centralized processing of administrative procedures of ministries and sectors for imported and exported goods; expanding the number of administrative procedures of ministries and branches; connecting, exchanging and sharing information between Customs authorities and ministries and sectors; functional agencies under ministries and sectors; border management units, immigration control; and relevant parties.

Thirdly, implementing the National Database Project on Customs. In addition, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will carry out other related vital tasks such as: Developing foundation systems to meet the requirements of deploying a digital connection and sharing system of Customs for connection and sharing intra-industry information data system under the centralized sharing connection model; building the foundation services to deploy the e-government of the Customs and perfecting the online public service platform.

At this forum, leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and General Department of Taxation conveyed a message about continuing to promote reform and innovation, modernizing state management, and drastic digital transformation in the next stage so that the business community in Vietnam and abroad, related agencies can grasp information and trust in the process of facilitation, accompanying businesses to overcome difficulties, well implement the economic recovery and development plan under the direction of the Party, National Assembly, Government and Prime Minister.