2022: A year of strong administrative reform for the Finance sector

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The Finance sector actively implements administrative reform to provide the best support to people and businesses. Photo: ST

Business and people-centric approach

From the point of view of administrative reform in the financial sector as bringing benefits for people and businesses; building business and people-centric approach; taking the satisfaction of the people and businesses as a measure for service quality of the units under the Ministry of Finance, the Finance sector has drastically implemented the administrative reform in all key areas.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance identified institutional reform as a key task in 2022. The research and development of legal documents in the financial sector have met the progress and requirements according to the Government and the Prime Minister's guidelines, promptly solving major problems and supporting people and businesses.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance has strengthened the management of administrative reform by reviewing, developing and promulgating legal documents on administrative reform to implement the Government's resolutions effectively. Accordingly, the Ministry has issued the Administrative Reform Plan for the 2021-2025 period and the Administrative Reform Plan for 2022. The Administrative Reform Plan for 2022 has seven contents and 63 groups of tasks with 159 specific output products and activities, clearly defining each unit's legal grounds, responsibilities, and implementation progress.

In addition to strengthening the administrative reform, in 2022, the Ministry of Finance strictly controlled administrative procedures under its management to achieve comprehensive and effective reform, creating favourable conditions for people and businesses and improving the business environment and national competitiveness.

Further, the Ministry has regularly reviewed administrative procedures to propose to abolish inappropriate administrative procedures or amend them towards a specific, clear and simple manner. As a result, from December 15, 2021, to December 14, 2022, the Ministry of Finance has issued 12 decisions on abolishing 152 administrative procedures; amending, supplementing and replacing 204 ones; issuing 58 new ones in the fields of Tax, customs, debt management, banking and finance, and corporate finance. As a result, as of December 14, 2022, the Ministry of Finance has managed 801 administrative procedures.

Many outstanding results in administrative reform in key areas

The Ministry of Finance said that in 2022, the Ministry has stably and effectively operated the model of receiving and returning administrative results under the Single Window at the Ministry's headquarters. In addition, the IT application in the operations of state administrative agencies has been expanded, so the quality and efficiency of operations have been improved, avoiding the congestion of applications and shortening processing time and creating transparency and legitimacy of the processing.

The modernization in the fields of Tax, Customs and Treasury has also recorded many outstanding results. For example, in the field of Tax, the tax industry has launched an e-tax declaration service. Therefore, 882,963 enterprises use the e-tax declaration service, reaching 99.94% of the total operating enterprises. Likewise, the number of enterprises using the e-tax payment service is 874,020, reaching 98.93%. Furthermore, regarding e-invoices, the e-invoice system has been implemented in 63 provinces and cities across the country, and the tax agency has received and processed more than 2,015 million invoices.

In the field of Customs, almost 250 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and agencies have been connected with the National Single Window, and more than 55,000 enterprises have joined the system. In addition, the customs agency has successfully launched the Automated System for Seaport Customs Management (VASSCM) at 33 of 35 Customs Departments of provinces and cities, creating favourable conditions for ports, warehouses and yards operators, reducing time and costs for import-export enterprises, enhancing the management efficiency of the Customs.

In 2023, the Ministry of Finance will focus on several key tasks in the administrative reform, such as: promoting the completion of the financial and legal system in association with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement; building a unified, consistent feasible, public, transparent, stable and accessible legal system with business and people-centric approach to support the development of the Finance sector; regularly review administrative procedures during implementation; streamline cumbersome and overlapping procedures; improve the efficiency of allocation and use of financial resources; focus on perfecting the legal institutions on the state budget.

Customs strengthens administrative reform to serve businesses and people

Regarding administrative reform, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requests that in 2023, the Finance sector should continue to streamline the management apparatus, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and the quality of the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees of the Finance sector in the spirit of Resolution 18-NQ/TW and Resolution 19-NQ/ TW. Moreover, the Finance sector should accelerate administrative reform and modernization, cut administrative procedures and business conditions and build an e-Government to serve people and businesses; boost digital transformation, in which the Customs sector should strive to transform to a smart customs model as soon as possible.