22 enterprises/32 mineral exploitation licenses included in the inspection list are mostly organizations licensed to exploit white stone and tin ore with large-scale and large-reserve mine systems such as Toan Thang Company Limited, Duyen Hoang Company Limited, Dong Tien Joint Stock Company, Trung Hai Minerals and Trading Joint Stock Company, Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company, Chinh Nghia Company Limited, Hong Bao Ngoc Company Limited, Ha An Tin Company Limited...
Among the 22 enterprises, Dong Tien Joint Stock Company was the first to be inspected by the Interdisciplinary Team. In the white stone capital of Quy Hop, Dong Tien Joint Stock Company is considered the top unit that complies well with the provisions of the law. However, on November 4, 2021, after conducting the inspection, the Interdisciplinary Team drew up a record of administrative violations against Dong Tien Joint Stock Company, with 4 violations. The first violation was discharging waste into water sources at the Mineral Processing Factory project in Chau Tien commune, Quy Hop district without a discharge license as prescribed in Point a, Clause 1, Article 20 of Decree No. 36/2020/ND-CP dated March 24, 2020 of the Government; Second act, not updating the current map and cross-section of the area of the mine permitted for mineral exploitation at least once every 6 months as prescribed in Circular No. 17/TT-BTNMT dated December 24, 2020 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The third act, not fully maintaining books, vouchers, documents, and related materials to determine the actual annual mining output according to regulations (no book to track the output of raw minerals and waste rock; no minutes of acceptance of the volume of each mining stage; no statistical table of mining output according to regulations in Circular No. 61/2017/TT-BTNMT of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment stipulating the process, methods of determining and statistical forms of actual mining mineral output). The fourth act, not organizing training on occupational safety and hygiene for employees according to regulations of law (93 people). With the 4 violations mentioned above, the total amount of money Dong Tien Joint Stock Company was fined is 370 million VND.
Not stopping there, the Interdisciplinary Delegation also discovered that Dong Tien Joint Stock Company declared resource tax and environmental protection fees in 2020 and the first 9 months of 2021 lower than the amount of resource tax incurred and environmental protection fees payable to the state budget. Thereby, it is recommended that competent authorities impose administrative sanctions on tax violations; calculate late tax payment fees and collect resource tax and environmental protection fees in 2020 and the first 9 months of 2021 with a total amount of VND 997,886,104 (of which, resource tax arrears are VND 890,843,453 and environmental protection fees are VND 107,042,651).
The second mineral mining enterprise inspected by the Interdisciplinary Team is Trung Nguyen Nghe An Minerals Company Limited. For this enterprise, the Interdisciplinary Team discovered the act of “incorrectly” declaring natural resource tax and environmental protection fees. Specifically, it under-declared the taxable output; did not declare the taxable output of excavated soil and rock; and under-declared the chargeable mineral output.
Trung Nguyen Nghe An Minerals Company Limited was charged a total of more than 1 billion 273 million VND. Of which, it was charged a resource tax of more than 1 billion 46 million VND (in 2020, it was charged a tax of more than 776.9 million VND; in the first 9 months of 2021, it was charged a tax of 270 million VND); collected an environmental protection fee of more than 87 million VND (in 2020, it was charged a tax of 11 million VND; in the first 9 months of 2021, it was charged a tax of more than 76 million VND); collected a corporate income tax of more than 139 million VND in 2020. In addition, Trung Nguyen Nghe An Minerals Company Limited was also charged a record of administrative violations and transferred to a competent authority to handle administrative violations for the violation of not classifying workers according to the provisions of Article 22 of the Law on Labor Safety and Hygiene 2015...
According to the information from the Interdisciplinary Delegation, all 22 inspected enterprises have violations and problems. To detect and clarify the existing violations of enterprises is not simple. However, explaining to enterprises to understand, comply with the conclusions and handling methods is much more difficult. The main reason comes from the fact that mineral exploitation activities are associated with a massive system of legal documents, including legal regulations on minerals, land, environmental protection, construction, labor, taxes and fees... Therefore, most enterprises are not fully aware.
In addition, before the time of the Interdisciplinary Team's inspection, many enterprises had been inspected, provided legal guidance, and handled by competent organizations and agencies. For example, Dong Tien Joint Stock Company was inspected by the Tax Department in 2020 under Decision No. 1158/QD-CT dated June 9, 2020; the inspection year was 2018 - 2019; then tax arrears, administrative fines and late payment fees were collected with a total amount of more than 636 million VND. Or like Trung Nguyen Nghe An Minerals Company Limited, in 2020, the Tax Department inspected its compliance with tax laws under Decision No. 670/QD-CT dated April 28, 2020; then it was handled with arrears, administrative fines and late payment fees with a total amount of 239,711,981 VND...
Therefore, there are mineral enterprises that "disobey" the inspection conclusion of the Interdisciplinary Team, and have petitions such as Duyen Hoang Company Limited. This enterprise was discovered by the Interdisciplinary Team to have a number of violations, including applying the conversion index incorrectly according to regulations, under-declaring taxable output; being proposed to be administratively fined VND 235 million; and collecting taxes and fees of more than VND 1.84 billion. After receiving the decision to impose fines and collect taxes and fees (Decision No. 603/QD-UBND dated April 7, 2022 of the People's Committee of Quy Hop District; Decision No. 421/QD-CCT dated April 4, 2022 of the Tax Department of Phu Quy I Area), Duyen Hoang Company Limited did not agree, on April 5, 2022, it sent a petition to the Provincial People's Committee, relevant agencies and the Interdisciplinary Team.
In the petition, Duyen Hoang Company Limited stated that the inspection by the Interdisciplinary Team was not objective, there was an imposition on the enterprise to pay fines and collect taxes without legal basis; cited inappropriate documents and were not within the scope of regulation of the Company's activities in the field of calculating natural resource tax on white marble to make CaCo3 powder; the Inspection Team calculated the technical and economic norms as stone used as common construction materials (conversion coefficient) and then applied the tax price and tax rate as white marble to make industrial mineral powder. Not only that, Duyen Hoang Company Limited also provided information that in 2021, it was inspected by the Tax Inspection Team of Phu Quy I Tax Department (Decision No. 5982 dated September 23, 2021), and there were minutes and conclusions with specific figures. Duyen Hoang Company Limited then complied and paid all the collected and fined amounts for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020. Meanwhile, the recent penalty decision of the Phu Quy I Regional Tax Department has not been agreed with the enterprise, but has collected the amount and imposed a very large fine, which is 1,847,676,907 VND.
In response to the petition of Duyen Hoang Company Limited, the Interdisciplinary Delegation had to hold a meeting to confront. Even on April 18, 2022, Document No. 26/DKT was issued to respond. Here, the Interdisciplinary Delegation had to carefully analyze each content of Duyen Hoang Company Limited's petition. Specifically, Duyen Hoang Company Limited was inspected by Phu Quy I Tax Department for the years 2018 - 2019 - 2020, had conclusions and complied, but the Interdisciplinary Delegation continued to inspect because the inspection period of the Delegation was assigned by the Provincial People's Committee in Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND dated October 21, 2021, from 2018 to September 2021. The Interdisciplinary Delegation did not inherit the inspection results of the Phu Quy I Regional Tax Department because after reviewing the output in 2018, 2019, 2020, it was found that Duyen Hoang Company Limited sold white marble resource products as carbonate powder from the unit of calculation (ton) to the unit of calculation (m3) from 2018 to September 6, 2020 is not correct with the unit, the proportion of actual resource products sold, contrary to the regulations on taxable resource output.
Regarding the legal basis for applying the conversion index, the Interdisciplinary Delegation cited the regulations of the Provincial People's Committee; explained the structure of the quarry of Duyen Hoang Company Limited, the data in the Mining License and the actual production of the enterprise. Thereby affirming the inspection and calculation process, the Delegation proposed to apply the density of 1.7 tons/1m3According to Article 49 and Article 50 of the Law on Tax Administration 38/2014/QH13, which stipulates "Principles of tax determination and tax determination for taxpayers in case of tax law violations", it is to ensure compliance with the principles of handling administrative violations in favor of the inspected entity, Duyen Hoang Company Limited...
