Nghe An Provincial People's Council: Supervising the responsibility of collecting tax arrears

On the morning of April 16, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council held a meeting to discuss the plan to supervise budget collection in the province for 3 years (2016 - 2018).

Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Council: Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and Hoang Viet Duong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee chaired the meeting. Also attending were Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department, Head of the Provincial People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs Department; leaders of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation and representatives of a number of relevant departments and branches. Photo: Mai Hoa

Clarifying the issue of tax loss

Based on the requirement to increase budget revenue and the reality of many shortcomings and inadequacies in this work in the province, at the 8th session, the 17th Provincial People's Council issued a Resolution to establish a specialized monitoring team on budget collection work for the period from 2016 to 2018.

Accordingly, the Provincial People's Council will conduct supervision from April 18 to May 17, 2019. The subjects of supervision include State management agencies (District People's Committees) related to the leadership and direction of budget collection; revenue management agencies (tax agencies) related to the work of building collection tasks or budget revenue estimates or tax collection; and taxpayers (enterprises and individual business households).

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Hoang Viet Duong requested that the monitoring process needs to assess the progress of tax management, collection and payment in each locality and specific monitoring subjects. Photo: Mai Hoa

At the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Hoang Viet Duong emphasized a number of requirements in the monitoring process, which is to assess the progress of tax management, collection and payment in each locality, specific monitoring subjects, focusing on the progress of debt collection, arising collection and total current debt.

It is also the management of tax payers that has covered all the provisions of the law related to corporate income tax, personal income tax, environmental protection tax; value added tax; the method of tax calculation has ensured objectivity, accuracy and avoided loopholes and exploitation by organizations and individuals in tax payment; the assessment of tax exemption and reduction subjects, and the work of value added tax refund have been in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Regarding tax arrears and tax debt collection, the monitoring process needs to clarify the responsibilities of state management agencies, tax administration agencies and taxpayers, on that basis, make appropriate recommendations to overcome this situation.

Through the results of the recent supervision of budget collection in the city, Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Council Le Van Ngoc pointed out a number of practices that are causing tax losses, requesting the Provincial People's Council's supervision delegation to pay attention.

Officers of Vinh Tax Department inspect the collection and payment of motorbike tax in Vinh City. Photo: Document

That is to monitor and detect shortcomings in the collection of non-agricultural land use tax and environmental sanitation service prices; in the establishment of the tax system, tax payers are being overlooked and tax calculation is not complete and accurate; coordination between levels and agencies in tax management and collection is still loose.

Besides, the disclosure of tax payers and tax debts is still very formal, not specific in address and amount of tax payment as well as outstanding debts for agencies, tax payers and people to monitor.

The mechanism of enterprises self-calculating, self-declaring, and self-paying is also creating loopholes that cause tax losses today, because honesty is not promoted, while supervision by tax authorities is limited.

Promote the responsibility of the members of the monitoring team

Head of the Culture and Social Affairs Committee of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Thi Thu Huong said that it is necessary to promote the initiative and responsibility of the members of the monitoring delegation. Photo: Mai Hoa

Head of the Provincial People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs Committee Nguyen Thi Thu Huong suggested that during the monitoring process, we should avoid only listening to reports from the supervised subjects, because if so, everything would be good and interesting; therefore, what needs to be focused on is promoting the initiative and responsibility of each member of the monitoring team to detect inadequacies in practice for correction, ensuring compliance with the law and fairness among taxpayers.

Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien concluded at the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien requested members of the monitoring delegation to promote high responsibility, proactively study documents, regulations, and related laws on tax so that the process of accessing the grassroots can easily detect inadequacies and limitations between regulations and practice.

From there, the monitoring delegation made accurate recommendations to help management agencies better manage budget revenue, including collecting correctly, collecting fully and nurturing revenue sources, contributing to the good implementation of the province's budget collection task, promoting socio-economic development.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also affirmed that, based on the units that are expected to directly supervise, the Provincial People's Council will also flexibly select a number of organizations and individuals for unscheduled supervision because the ultimate goal is to clearly understand the nature of the problem and make appropriate recommendations.