Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee: Agree 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 and branches along with a number of localities to listen to reports on the budget collection situation 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 of 1,350 billion VND

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

However, Director of Nghe An Tax Department Trinh Thanh Hai said that the tax arrears situation has been increasing over the months. Total tax arrears as of October 31, 2018 was 1,350 billion VND.

There were many reasons informed by the Provincial Tax Department to 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, 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% over 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 shortfall is revenue from the business sector, including: central and local state-owned enterprises, foreign-invested and non-state-owned enterprises, about 1,000 billion VND.

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

At the meeting, the Tax sector also pointed out the main 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 the 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 on a weekly and daily basis.

The leaders of the Tax sector also made a number of recommendations and proposals to the 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 handling tax debt

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 relevant people and businesses about tax payment obligations; coordinate closely with relevant agencies, localities on tax collection work, and mass media agencies for propaganda.

The Tax sector needs to continue to do a good job in 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 analyze low-achievement collections 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 and examination teams on tax law compliance 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 for 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 speeding up the collection progress, including localities that have completed or exceeded the assigned budget; actively have 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 plans to ensure land valuation is close to actual value; and recalculate the land auction process at the grassroots level.

Thanh Duy