Why import tax collection decreased?

(Baonghean) - In the first 8 months of 2016, the state budget revenue from major revenue items at Nghe An Customs Department was relatively stable. However, the collection progress of some items only reached a very small part, affecting the province's import and export tax collection plan.

According to Nghe An Customs Department, in 2016, the Ministry of Finance assigned the target of revenue from import-export activities of 970 million VND, the General Department of Customs assigned to strive to reach 1,000 billion VND; meanwhile, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee assigned more than 1,200 billion VND, an increase of 26% compared to the actual revenue compared to the previous year of only 1,007.6 billion VND. By the end of August 2016, the amount of revenue paid to the state budget of Nghe An Customs Department was more than 528.5 billion VND, reaching more than 54% of the assigned target (970 billion VND) and 41.6% of the legal target (1,270 billion VND), down 11.1% compared to the same period in 2015.

Loading and unloading goods at Cua Lo port.

According to Nguyen Van Khanh, Head of the Department of Professional Affairs of Nghe An Customs Department: Most of the import and export items with major revenue such as rolled aluminum, wood, plastic pellets, electronic components, asphalt, vegetable oil, breeding cattle, beef cattle, gasoline, etc. have all decreased sharply. The collection progress of some items has only reached a very small part, or even not reached the assigned target. Specifically: Regarding gasoline, according to the initial estimate, the tax collected from imported gasoline in 2016 was more than 250 billion VND. However, up to now, the amount of imported gasoline has only reached 14,173 tons, down 45.2% compared to the same period in 2015, equivalent to the tax collected of more than 59 billion VND, reaching 23.2% compared to the estimate and down more than 65% compared to the same period in 2015.

The annual budget revenue at Nghe An Customs Department depends heavily on the tax collected from petroleum products. However, the world price of petroleum products decreased from the end of 2014, and decreased sharply in 2015 until the first 6 months of 2016. In addition, in the first 6 months of 2016, the Vietnam National Petroleum Group did not allocate quotas for Nghe An Petroleum Company to import through the port in the province. This greatly affected the state budget revenue at the unit.

Next is imported wood products, every year, imported wood from Laos contributes about 100 billion VND to the budget revenue of the unit. Since the end of 2015 until now, import and export activities at border gates in the area have been very limited. In particular, in the past time, at Thanh Thuy Border Gate Customs Branch, there has been no import of wood shipments.

At the Nam Can International Border Gate Customs Branch and other secondary border gates and openings, the state budget revenue from wood products was only over VND23 billion, reaching over 19% of the initial estimate (VND120.5 billion) and decreasing by over 63%. The main reason for the decrease in this item is that Laos changed its policy, strictly managing wood exports, only allowing the export of processed wood. Along with that, some other items such as electronic components, imported asphalt, exported white limestone, etc. also decreased sharply.

In addition, some items enjoy special preferential tax rates % due to the origin of goods (C/O) from countries that have signed the Trade Agreement on goods such as rolled aluminum, beef imported from Australia... According to the 2016 budget estimate, the tax collected from rolled aluminum is 39 billion VND, from beef and breeding cattle is more than 58 billion VND. Up to now, the tax paid to the budget for rolled aluminum is only more than 2.9 billion VND. In addition, beef and breeding cattle are imported through Vung Ang deep-water port, Ha Tinh province because Cua Lo port does not meet the conditions for turning ships, leading to a decrease in budget revenue...

Professional activities of officers of Cua Lo Port Customs Branch.

Faced with such a difficult situation, according to Director of Nghe An Customs Department Chu Quang Luan, in order to complete the state budget collection target, Nghe An Customs Department has made detailed plans for each month and quarter, organized contact, support, and promptly resolved difficulties and problems for businesses; researched solutions to remove difficulties suitable for each business; and promptly and effectively supported businesses in paying taxes.

Minh Thu