Difficulties in budget collection from early year

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	Striving to fulfil 2022 budget collection task
	Lang Son Customs faces many difficulties in State budget collection

Revenue from imports and exports in January 2023 decreased caused by the reduction in import and export turnover. Photo: Phong Nhan

Revenue declined

According to the Ministry of Finance, the revenue in January 2023 is estimated at VND183.7 trillion, accounting for 11.3% of the target, 5% lower than the result in January 2022.

Of which, domestic revenue rose 3.1% year-on-year to VND160.4 trillion, reaching 12% of the target; revenue from crude oil surged 67.7% year-on-year to VND5.3 trillion, reaching 12.6% of the target. Meanwhile, revenue from imports and export decreased 35% year-on-year to VND28 trillion or 6.6% of the target. The Ministry of Finance said that as of February 2023, the State revenue gained VND213 trillion, or 13.1% of the target, of which central revenue reached 14.26% and local revenue reached 11.87%.

According to Mr. Phi Van Tuan, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation, from the end of 2022, the tax sector has identified difficulties, therefore, at the beginning of 2023, based on assessing the movements of industries such as securities, real estate, steel and construction, the General Department of Taxation has provided an analysis and assessment of the possibility of revenue reduction to review and search a source of compensatory revenue to ensure the whole year’s revenue target.

The close direction has helped the domestic revenue in January to be quite good, higher than the result in the same period last year. The General Department of Taxation together with units of the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government a support policy package on the extension of payment deadlines for tax and land rental and exemption from late payment interest for land and water surface rental.

According to Deputy Director General Phi Van Tuan, in addition to debt management, the tax sector has developed solutions to support each locality and enterprise to reduce debts, especially in the field of real estate and automobiles.

The leader of the General Department of Taxation said from now until the end of the year, it is forecast that state budget revenue will face many difficulties, therefore to offset the reductions, the tax sector has actively assessed each revenue and carried out solutions to raise revenue and offer support packages on tax and land rental exemption, reduction and extension of payment deadline for people and businesses.

The Tax sector is also urgently submitting to the Ministry to establish a data center on electronic invoices, contributing to minimizing risks; implementing electronic invoices created by cash registers, which is a tool to prevent tax revenue loss; accelerating the implementation of the project on building an electronic portal connecting with relevant ministries and agencies such as construction, natural resources and environment to have a database to prevent loss of revenue in real estate transfers; and strengthening discipline in the whole sector and minimizing risks in revenue management.

Monitor import and export trends to assess impacts on revenue

According to the General Department of Customs, Vietnam recorded US$46.56 billion in trade in January 2023, decreasing 17.3% compared to December 2022. In addition to the reason that the New Year holidays and the Lunar New Year holidays fall on January 2023, an important reason is that from the fourth quarter of 2022, global consumer demand declined, especially in main markets, leading to a decrease in import and export orders.

Deputy Director General of the General Department of Customs Mai Xuan Thanh said that the import-export turnover tends to decrease in the near future, so the General Department of Customs will monitor and work with units under the Ministry to assess the impact on customs revenue.

According to Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, the reduction in import-export activities is because enterprises face many difficulties, especially cash flow, legal procedures, the labor market decreases, and orders and interest rates rise.

These will affect the economy and directly affect fiscal policy and state budget revenue. Therefore, the Minister requested officers in the whole sector to continue to promote the spirit of solidarity and make efforts to overcome difficulties to affirm the key role of the Ministry of Finance in the current difficult period. The minister requested that, from the first days and months of the year, the entire Finance sector should focus on implementing fiscal policies with a people and business-centric approach.

The Ministry of Finance has completed the announcement of the tasks of state budget revenue and expenditure in 2023 to ministries, and central and local agencies in accordance with the State Budget Law.

The Ministry of Finance has issued Circular No. 78/2022/TT-BTC stipulating the implementation of the state budget estimation for 2023. Based on the estimate assigned by the Prime Minister and the guidance of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, ministries and central agencies have assigned central budget estimates to their attached budget-using units; and People’s Councils of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have decided on local budget estimates.

Tax sector ready to carry out the budget collection in 2023

The Ministry requested speeding up the disbursement of public investment - an important engine of economic growth in 2023. As of January 31, 2023, more than VND638 trillion was allocated, reaching 90.32% of the target assigned by the Prime Minister.