Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee: Agreed to establish an interdisciplinary team to handle tax arrears

On the afternoon of November 5, Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired a meeting with the Nghe An Tax Department and related departments, branches and some localities to listen to reports on budget collection in the first 10 months of the year and discuss solutions to boost budget collection in the last months of 2018. Photo: Thanh Duy

Tax debt 1,350 billion VND

In the first 9 months of 2018, Nghe An Tax Department recovered 686 billion VND in tax debt, of which 356 billion VND was collected from old debt and 329 billion VND was collected from newly arising debt.

However, Director of Nghe An Tax Department Trinh Thanh Hai said that the tax arrears situation has increased over the months. The total tax arrears as of October 31, 2018 were VND1,350 billion.

There are many reasons that the Provincial Tax Department informed the delegates at the meeting, including difficulties in production and business activities of enterprises, large inventories. Many large enterprises also have outstanding debts.

Announcing the list of some key enterprises with tax debts, the Director of Nghe An Tax Department said that after 90 days of tax debt, the tax authority will start enforcing payment, so there are enterprises that wait until this time to pay and are still in debt.

Director of Nghe An Tax Department Trinh Thanh Hai speaks at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

By the end of October, in general, the total budget revenue in Nghe An province reached 10,903 billion VND, equal to 91% of the ordinance estimate and 86% of the estimate assigned by the Provincial People's Council.

Of which, domestic revenue reached 9,592 billion VND, equal to 89% of the ordinance estimate, 83% of the estimate assigned by the Provincial People's Council and 113% compared to the same period.

Revenue excluding land use fees alone reached 7,197.5 billion VND, equal to 76% of the estimate assigned by the Provincial People's Council, equal to 105% over the same period.

Through calculations, the Tax sector assessed: Based on the revenue of the first 10 months of the year and the actual local situation, the revenue in the province in 2018 is expected to complete the estimate assigned by the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee (12,691 billion VND).

However, domestic revenue alone, excluding land use fees, is expected to fall short of the assigned estimate. Of which, the expected revenue shortfall is revenue from the business sector, including: central and local state-owned enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises, of about VND1,000 billion.

Produced at Vinh Plastic Packaging Joint Stock Company. Photo: Thanh Duy

At the meeting, the Tax sector also outlined key tasks to focus on and make drastic and synchronous efforts in the last two months of the year, including regularly monitoring the revenue situation, grasping revenue sources and the number of taxpayers in the area to carry out tax collection tasks.

In particular, the industry focuses on analyzing, evaluating and forecasting revenue sources, especially specifically analyzing the causes of revenue increases and decreases in each locality and revenue sector, thereby promptly synthesizing and reporting revenue results and forecasting revenue weekly and daily.

The leaders of the Tax sector also made a number of recommendations and proposals to sectors and localities to increase budget revenue and collect tax debts. The leaders of the sectors also gave their opinions to clarify the proposed solutions. The district-level localities also made recommendations to increase budget revenue in the area.

Deputy Director of the Department of Finance Pham Chi Kien spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Focus on tax debt settlement

Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy requested the Nghe An Tax Department to continue to propagate, mobilize, provide and disseminate information to people and related businesses about tax payment obligations; coordinate smoothly with relevant agencies, localities on tax collection, and mass media agencies for propaganda.

The Tax sector needs to continue to do a good job of administrative reform; coordinate with other sectors, especially the State Treasury and Customs through the network system to create the most favorable conditions for taxpayers. In particular, it is necessary to continue to review and evaluate the overall tax collection results in the first 10 months of the year, and at the same time analyze the low revenue to have solutions for direction and supervision.

"I have proposed a solution, but it is necessary to grasp the situation, notify and forecast daily and weekly about budget revenue," the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee noted, emphasizing that the industry must continue to coordinate with the State Treasury, Customs, and the Department of Finance to carry out this task.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also emphasized that in the current context, the provincial Tax Department must increase inspection teams to check compliance with tax laws in the last two months of the year, especially focusing on a number of areas showing signs of large revenue losses such as real estate, mineral exploitation, etc.;

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy agreed to establish an interdisciplinary team on handling tax arrears led by a Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy concluded the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also assigned specific tasks to a number of relevant departments and branches, in which the Department of Finance needs to review and make a list of units and enterprises that still owe the budget; spend the budget in advance for enterprises that have not yet recovered to propose to the Provincial People's Committee solutions; have effective measures to speed up the settlement of basic construction payments to speed up capital disbursement.

The Department of Transport coordinates with relevant sectors to review and rectify the collection and payment of transport business fees. For the People's Committees of districts, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requests to focus on accelerating the collection progress, including localities that have completed or exceeded the assigned budget; actively develop plans to recover tax arrears. Districts with mineral activities coordinate with relevant sectors to strengthen strict control of mineral exploitation activities;...

The Department of Planning and Investment continues to preside over and coordinate to attract investment, in which the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee noted the need to research and carefully consider when selecting investors to both promote growth, economic development, and job creation, but also to increase the province's budget revenue.

Emphasizing the large potential for tax collection from real estate but low collection and loss of revenue, Chairman Thai Thanh Quy requested the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to study and advise on a plan to ensure land valuation is close to actual value; recalculate the land auction process at the grassroots level.