Nghe An: Collected over 44 billion VND from inspecting law compliance of 13 mineral enterprises

Penalty and collection of tax violations of over 18 billion VND

On October 21, 2021, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND on the establishmentInterdisciplinary delegation inspects law enforcement in mineral activitiesof 12 mineral exploitation enterprises in the districts of Quy Hop (9 enterprises), Tan Ky (2 enterprises) and Quynh Luu (1 enterprise); and the responsibility of 4 district-level People's Committees (including Quy Hop, Nghia Dan, Tan Ky, Nam Dan) in state management of minerals in the province.

White stone mining activities of a business in Quy Hop district. Photo: Nhat Lan

Carrying out the tasks assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, the Interdisciplinary Delegation (with the participation of the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, Construction, Industry and Trade, Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Environmental Police Department (Provincial Police), Tax Department) inspected the compliance with laws on minerals, land, environment, compliance with mine design, labor safety, use of industrial explosives, implementation of financial obligations, taxes and other relevant laws for 12 mineral exploitation enterprises.

Regarding the inspection time of the Interdisciplinary Team, assigned by the Provincial People's Committee in Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND is 75 days. However, due to the large volume of work; the development of plans, proposals, and estimates for measuring and determining raw mineral reserves to be submitted to competent authorities for approval; the operation process must be carried out both at the site and at the office; the collection and processing of data related to the inspection content requires a lot of time... Therefore, during the implementation of the inspection task, the Team reported and was extended the inspection time by the Provincial People's Committee. Up to now, the Interdisciplinary Team has completed the inspection work and reported the inspection results to the Provincial People's Committee.

The total amount of fines, arrears, and additional payments made by businesses during the inspection period was over 44 billion VND. Of which, the fines and arrears for tax violations alone were over 18.3 billion VND.

An article about the loss of mineral tax revenue on Nghe An Electronic Newspaper. Photo: Nhat Lan

“According to Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee, the Delegation will conduct inspections of 12 enterprises. However, during the inspection, the Delegation discovered an additional enterprise in Quy Hop district with signs of violations, so it reported to the Provincial People's Committee to add it to the inspection list…” - the representative of the interdisciplinary Delegation explained the increase in the number of inspected enterprises compared to Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND.

Will continue to inspect mineral activities in Quy Hop

Also according to the representative of the Interdisciplinary Delegation, through the inspection activities, the Delegation found that the main problems of the enterprise focused on a number of contents such as:

Using land as a mine office area and waste dump but not leasing land; not installing a weighing station; establishing but not fully completing books, vouchers, documents, and related materials to determine actual annual mining output.

There are some enterprises that exploit beyond permitted capacity, exploit beyond licensed boundaries, violate mine design, build substandard fences for explosives warehouses, do not fully participate in social insurance for workers, do not provide adequate occupational safety and hygiene training, and do not develop incident handling and emergency response plans...

An area with tin mining activities in Quy Hop district. Photo: Nhat Lan

It is noteworthy that all 13 inspected enterprises had tax violations. The tax violations analyzed and clarified by the Delegation included incorrect declaration of output, price for calculating natural resource tax, conversion coefficient between tons and m3, etc.

“Given this reality, at a recent meeting, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to propose a plan to inspect law enforcement in mineral activities in Quy Hop district…” - a representative of the Interdisciplinary Delegation informed.