The Tax Authority warns of high-risk tax and fee issues at the Chau Binh ruby-sapphire mine.
According to information provided by the Nghe An Provincial Tax Department, the ruby-sapphire mining operations at the Chau Binh mine of Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company show signs of high risk regarding taxes and fees. This information has been reported and provided by the Tax Department to relevant authorities, including the Vietnam Geological and Mineral Resources Department.
Signs of high risk from taxes and fees.
On January 16, 2026, by Document No. 163/NAN-CNTK, the Nghe An Provincial Tax Department instructed Tax Office No. 5 to provide reporters from Nghe An Newspaper and Radio and Television with information and documents related to tax management for Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company - the unit licensed by the former Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to exploit the ruby-sapphire mine in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area, Chau Binh commune, Quy Chau district (formerly).
Subsequently, on January 29, 2026, Tax Department No. 5 issued Document No. 35/TCS5-QLDN. According to this document, Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company has tax code 0100101393 and is registered to declare taxes at the Hanoi City Tax Department.
Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company was granted a license to mine ruby-sapphire in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area, Chau Binh commune, with a mining term of 5 years and 7 months; the leased land area is 4.72 hectares. During the mining process in Nghe An province, the enterprise incurred obligations to declare and pay taxes and fees, including: resource tax, environmental protection fee, business license fee; non-agricultural land use tax; mining rights fee and land lease fee as notified.
When Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company began operating at the ruby-sapphire mine in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area, Tax Office 5 (formerly the Phu Quy I Regional Tax Office, Phu Quy I Inter-district Tax Team) carried out propaganda, guidance, and urging of the enterprise to declare and pay taxes and fees according to regulations through various forms such as: direct guidance via telephone and Zalo; issuing documents to urge compliance (Official Letter No. 245/CCT-NVDT dated June 28, 2024; Official Letter No. 472/CCT-NVDT dated November 11, 2024); and sending reminder letters to submit declarations according to the procedure.
Due to late submission of tax returns, the enterprise was fined a total of VND 78,150,000 by the Phu Quy I Regional Tax Office according to decisions issued in November 2024; the enterprise has complied and paid the full amount into the State budget.
According to the Tax Authority, during the management process, businesses frequently submit tax and fee declarations and declare taxable production and fees as zero. In response to this situation, Tax Office 5 has issued numerous notices and invitations to meetings requesting explanations.
According to the explanation provided by Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company, the company stated that because it is still carrying out basic construction of the mine and building auxiliary facilities to support mining operations, and has not yet commenced actual mining, the amount of extracted resources as of September 30, 2024 is zero.
Tax authority No. 5 has conducted verification with relevant agencies and worked with the business after the verification results were obtained. By January 2025, the company "declared" additional resource output to calculate environmental protection fees for waste soil and rock. Accordingly, the business incurred an obligation to pay environmental protection fees up to December 2024, but continued to provide written explanations and committed to being legally responsible for declaring zero output for tax and fee calculation for precious stones.
However, based on the records and documents provided by the enterprise and information obtained during the management process, Tax Base 5 determined that the ruby-sapphire mining operation in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area shows a high risk of tax and fee declaration irregularities.
Based on that, the Regulations on Coordination in State Management of Mineral Resources in Nghe An Province, Tax Department No. 5 issued Official Letter No. 372/CCT-VNQLT dated October 10, 2024, reporting signs of tax and fee risks to the former Nghe An Provincial Tax Department to coordinate with the former Nghe An Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Official Letter No. 382/CCT-NVQLT dated October 14, 2024, sent to the former Quy Chau District People's Committee; and Official Letter No. 73/CCT-KTr dated February 21, 2025, sent to the Vietnam Mineral Resources Department (now the Vietnam Geological and Mineral Resources Department).
Proposal to determine the amount of resources already extracted.
In Document No. 35/TCS5-QLDN, Tax Department 5 informed about the Department of Agriculture and Environment's Decision No. 133/QD-SNNMT dated April 17, 2025, establishing an inter-agency working group to inspect the ruby-sapphire mining activities in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area of Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company. Tax Department 5 reported high-risk signs regarding tax and fee declarations in the ruby-sapphire mining activities in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area, and provided information to the Vietnam Mineral Resources Department to be included in the inspection report of the inter-agency working group.
On July 17, 2025, Tax Department No. 5 received Official Letter No. 5331/SNNMT-KS dated July 14, 2025, from the Department of Agriculture and Environment regarding the prevention and control of revenue loss, waste, and loss of mineral resources in mining and mineral processing activities of Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company.
In Official Letter No. 5331/SNNMT-KS, the Department of Agriculture and Environment stated:“The company has extracted approximately 60 meters from the top of mineral deposit (according to the exploration report, approximately 9,000 m3 of mineral deposit has been extracted); the company has not declared and paid resource tax, environmental protection fees, and other related financial obligations, and we request the Nghe An Provincial Tax Department to inspect and collect resource tax, environmental protection fees, and other related financial obligations in accordance with the law.”
Immediately after receiving the information, Tax Department No. 5 issued a document requesting Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company to explain and provide information on the actual amount of resources extracted. However, the company continued to provide explanations and commitments to take responsibility for reporting that the mining operation yielded no ore and the raw mineral output was zero; at the same time, it also announced that it had sent documents to the Vietnam Mineral Resources Department and the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Nghe An province informing them that the actual resource output extracted was zero.
According to Tax Authority No. 5, the Tax Authority does not have the function or authority to determine the actual amount of resources extracted. Therefore, on December 15, 2025, Tax Authority No. 5 sent Official Letter No. 375/CV-TCS5 to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Nghe An province, requesting the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to implement professional measures to determine the actual extraction output of the enterprise, as a basis for calculating resource tax and environmental protection fees according to regulations. Currently, the Tax Authority is awaiting information from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment on the results of the determination of the actual amount of resources extracted to continue processing taxes and fees (if any) for Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company in accordance with the law.
Regarding the ruby-sapphire mine in the Doi Ty - Khe Met area, Chau Binh commune, owned by Hanoi Gemstone and Gold Joint Stock Company, Nghe An Newspaper and Radio and Television have recently published several articles on Baonghean.vn, reflecting on unusual signs in mining operations and the fulfillment of obligations to the state as stipulated by law. Most recently, on January 17, 2026, through the article "Nghe An province is clarifying taxes and fees at the Chau Binh ruby-sapphire mine."Along with the information on 'high-risk indicators of taxes and fees' provided by the Tax Department of Nghe An province, as mentioned above, we request that the competent authorities direct relevant agencies to focus on clarifying this issue!"
