Dialogue with VBF: The Ministry of Finance is committed to continuing strong reforms

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The Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms. Vu Thi Mai speaks at the dialogue.

Efforts in reform

The Deputy Minister, Ms. Vu Thi Mai highly appreciated the contribution of the business community to the socio-economic development of Vietnam in recent times and said that the dialogue was a good opportunity for the Ministry of Finance and businesses to share and solve difficulty and problems in the implementation of financial policies, especially tax and Customs policies.

The Deputy Minister, Ms. Vu Thi Mai added that Vietnam's macro economy was continuing to stabilize, economic growth had good prospects, consumer price index was low, inflation was controlled, and State budget expenditure was well implemented. Particularly, the reform of administrative procedures is being actively implemented by the units to facilitate the production and business activities of enterprises.

In the field of taxation, the General Department of Taxation has constantly reformed the modernization, deployment of electronic taxes, electronic tax refund as well as pilot implementation of electronic invoices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to make the environment more and more transparent, equal and convenient for businesses.

In the field of Customs, together with the implementation of the National Single Window, the ASEAN Single Window, the Ministry of Finance has put in place an automated Customs clearance management system for seaports and airports in Hai Phong, which was highly appreciated by import and export enterprises. In the coming time, the Ministry of Finance will expand this system in Ho Chi Minh City port and Noi Bai International Airport.

In addition, the General Department of Vietnam Customs will continue to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to reduce administrative procedures, change appropriate methods and make a strong change in specialized inspections to create favourable conditions for the business community.

However, the Deputy Minister, Ms. Vu Thi Mai said that the results were just at the beginning, so there was a need for more efforts. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance shall continue to improve institutions, accelerate the reform of administrative procedures, focusing on taxation and Customs.

She also hoped that the business community would actively innovate and improve their competitiveness, while committing the financial sector to make greater efforts to reform more strongly, creating more favourable conditions for businesses.

Commitment to support businesses

At the dialogue, many problems of enterprises related to the group of policies on VAT rates for services provided to export processing enterprises; the transfer pricing in determining the taxable income for capital transfer activities; procedures for declaration, deduction and refund of VAT; term deposit interest rates for demand deposits; fixed assets from affiliated parties; corporate income tax incentives for goods trading activities of enterprises enjoying preferential treatment according to geographical areas were solved and answered by representatives of units under the Ministry of Finance.

In the case where the questions were not directly answered at the dialogue, the Ministry of Finance will recognize and assign the General Department of Taxation, General Department of Customs, Department of Tax Policy, Department of Legal Affairs to coordinate with competent units to reply to the businesses after the dialogue.

In conclusion, the Deputy Minister, Ms. Vu Thi Mai appreciated the questions and suggestions of VBF as well as businesses and associations. The Deputy Minister hoped that through the response of the Ministry of Finance, enterprises and associations could grasp more specifically the procedures and regulations of Vietnam.

As for specific problems, if under the authority of the Ministry of Finance, it will study in writing and guiding circulars. If it is under the authority of the higher level, the Ministry of Finance will seek opinions to decide. Accordingly, the leaders of the Ministry of Finance also pledged to continue to reform more strongly to facilitate enterprises operating in Vietnam.

In addition, the Deputy Minister asked the VBF, associations and businesses to give more comments during the drafting process of legal documents to avoid problems for businesses when officially applied.

Online seminar on amending and supplementing Law on Import-Export Duty VCN- In order to directly listen to the suggestions from provincial and municipal Customs Departments on amended ...

Thanks to the Ministry of Finance and other units, Mr. Sagara Hirohide hoped that similar dialogues would be held regularly so that businesses and regulators had a better chance of understanding each other, thereby making better cooperation in the course of performing the obligations of enterprises, especially foreign enterprises investing in Vietnam.