Deploying electronic tax applications, towards Digital Ministry of Finance by 2030

Mínter of Finance Ho Duc Phoc

The General Department of Taxation implements quick digital transformation

Speaking at the conference on the launch of the portal for foreign providers and introduction of the etax mobile application of General Department of Taxation held on March 21, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said, with the objective of becoming a Digital Ministry of Finance by 2030, the Ministry of Finance would focus on four topics: Smart Customs; Digital Treasury with "three no’s" (no voucher, no cash, no customer transactions); strong digital transformation of the stock market; strict tax management to avoid tax fraud and provide the best service for people and businesses.

Looking back at 2021, the Minister assessed that the General Department of Taxation has carried out a drastic digital transformation. In particular, the whole sector has implemented e-invoices proactively and quickly. Specifically, e-invoices were launched at the end of the second quarter of 2021 with the goal of issuing more than 7 billion tax invoices. In the first phase, the tax sector made over 4 billion e-invoices when deployed in six localities for large enterprises and large business households. Moving to phase 2, by the end of July 1, 2022, the whole country will have implemented e-invoices. This was an important goal of the tax sector, bringing many results such as fighting against the loss of state revenue and preventing fraud in selling and purchasing invoices.

The Minister said that the Tax sector is currently building an invoice data system that connects to the national population database to get identification data in order to establish an identification code of the tax sector, thereby greatly helping to perform tax administration.

At the opening ceremony, Minister Ho Duc Phoc stated the reason for launching these two applications. According to the Minister, currently, the development speed of Vietnam's e-commerce sector was relatively strong. Many large corporations such as Google had made comments on the possibility that the scale of Vietnam's digital economy would exceed the threshold of US$52 billion and hold 3rd position in the ASEAN region by 2025. This means tax collection and management must be at a very high level.

Moreover, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the transformation of online shopping was inevitable. This practice required appropriate and timely adaptations, not only to effectively manage but also to create conditions to promote the development of e-commerce activities; at the same time, creating a level playing field between traditional business and e-commerce, between domestic business activities and cross-border business activities.

"I asked the General Department of Taxation to complete three things. The first was to build a Portal and open accounts for cross-border taxpayers (i.e. foreign businesses).

The second was to issue guidelines and disseminate information widely. The third was to build an application for automatic tax calculation. At the same time, the tax sector also had to carry out inspections and examinations. I also asked the General Department of Taxation to offer convenience to people, especially business households. When they have accounts at commercial banks, they can pay taxes via mobile phones. The Tax Department had implemented those tasks very quickly.

“Today, we launched these two applications that brought great convenience to taxpayers, managing tax better and were currently in line with the goals of digital transformation. I commend the General Department of Taxation for actively deploying and completing services for people and businesses. At the same time, implementing tax management tools more closely and effectively," the Minister stated.

Carrying out digital transformation

In the future, the Minister of Finance proposed that the General Department of Taxation should continue to maintain and operate the electronic portal system for foreign suppliers and the eTax Mobile system in order to ensure continuous and stable operation 24/7.

Furthermore, promoting communication on mass media and information channels to support taxpayers to fully and easily access and use electronic tax services in the process of implementing tax obligations, thereby creating a habit among taxpayers.

Secondly, the General Department of Taxation must ensure the security of these systems.

Thirdly, the General Department of Taxation must regularly review, inspect, supervise and inspect cases of tax evasion.

Fourth, the Minister requested to continue researching, upgrading, integrating and adding new features and utilities to meet the needs of foreign suppliers in the process of implementing tax obligations and regulations.

The Minister also suggested that the People's Committees of provinces should strengthen the communication of these two services; helping the Finance sector to build, issue and manage electronic invoices; coordinating with the Finance sector, including Taxation, Customs and Treasury to perform tax management and revenue collection.

The Ministry of Finance also requested ministries and sectors, especially the State Bank, to direct commercial banks to urgently coordinate with the tax sector to connect and implement electronic tax services via eTax Mobile application. Currently, only five commercial banks (BIDV, Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and MBbank) have completed the connection with tax authorities.

The Minister also suggested that the Government Office continue upgrading and expanding the National Public Service Portal, to ensure stable operation and create favorable conditions when providing electronic tax services to people and businesses.

"The Ministry of Finance looked forward to continuing to receive the coordination, companionship and support of central ministries, departments and sectors; the close coordination and direction of the leaders of the provincial Party Committee, the city party committee and the People's Committees of the provinces and cities to work with the Finance and Tax sectors to successfully implement electronic tax services for people, businesses, and taxpayers, as well as successfully launching programs and strategies of digital transformation of the Finance sector in general and the tax sector in particular in the future," Minister Ho Duc Phuc said.