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The Finance sector has checked 138,364 tax returns at the tax office. Photo: T.Linh.

Proposal to handle 16.2 trillion VND

In the first six months of 2019, Inspectors of the Ministry of Finance and units with specialized inspection functions have carried out 25,173 inspections and checked 138,364 tax declaration dossiers at the tax office.

Through inspection and examination, it has proposed to handle 16.2 trillion VND, of which the recovery of state budget payment is 4.5 trillion VND; other financial handling proposals of 10.5 trillion VND; sanctioning administrative violations of over 1.2 trillion VND. The amount of money paid to the state budget is over 3.4 trillion VND.

Through financial inspections, the units are requested to review and urge the collection of tax debts and to sanction administrative violations; reorganize the management of construction investment capital, surveying, designing, estimating, bidding, in order to accelerate the implementation of projects. At the same time, to propose to ministries, branches and localities to supplement processes and to amend legal documents related to management, administration and policy mechanisms to be consistent with reality.

In the first half of the year, the Ministry of Finance Inspectorate alone implemented 12 inspections as planned, reaching 30.77% compared to 39 inspections and inspections according to the plan of 2019, equal to 54.5% compared to the same period in 2018.

Contents of inspections include management and administration of local budgets, management of capital construction investment, financial management at the non-business units, enterprises, and internal administrative inspections. The inspection and examination contents are scientifically integrated, contributing to shortening inspection and examination time. Through the results of 14 inspection conclusions and three reports of inspection results, the Finance Ministry Inspector has proposed financial handling of about 1.5 trillion VND.

Tran Huy Truong, Deputy Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance, said it has detected many problems and mistakes in all fields. For example, in the management and administration of local budgets, it detected that many localities have not yet approved the planning on the network of public non-business units and plans on autonomy for public non-business units; incorrectly issued the percentage of Special Consumption Tax revenues leading to a lack of central budget; and not yet issued enough regulations on fees in accordance with its competence.

There are some localities where the estimates for capital construction investment from the overspending source in the mid-term public investment plan for 2016-2020 are not appropriate to the competence compared with the provisions of the State Budget Law; allocating local budget capital for less important projects that extend the prescribed time limit; have not signed land lease contracts; not yet submitted to the Enterprise Arrangement and Development Support Fund; even approved and deployed investment projects beyond the ability to balance the local budget.

In the field of management of construction investment, corporate finance, price management and financial funds, Truong said that the units have conducted five inspections as per the plan and circulated three inspection conclusions from 2018. The mistakes were quite diverse such as approving the estimation of using non-compliant materials, improper preparation and approval of total cost estimates; not yet performed debt comparison; financial investment at risks of losing capital; accounting for lack of revenue and income; improper cost accounting; accounting for lack of profits. These inspection teams have proposed to handle 393.6 billion VND.

Prevent harassment and negative cases

In addition to the achievements, according to the inspection of the Ministry of Finance Inspectorate, some problems still exist. Specifically, the 2019 inspection plan of some units is not close to reality, leading to the adjustment of the inspection in the first months of 2019. Some inspections in the first six months of 2019 are still slow to release their conclusions. Some inspection teams implementing the weekly reporting regime are not detailed, specific, lack information, failing to meet the requirements for direction.

In order to improve the effectiveness of inspection and examination in the last months of the year, Tran Van Vuong, Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance, pointed out some key solutions. Firstly, organizing and promptly implementing the financial inspection in 2019 according to the approved plan; arranging forces and effectively deploying to complete 100% of inspection plans and unexpected tasks.

At the same time, arrange contingency forces in case of unexpected inspection under the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance; implementing the mechanism of supervising the inspection team to ensure prevention, detection, prevention and strict handling of cases of harassment, and negativity during the inspection and examination process. In particular, strengthening coordination between the Ministry of Finance Inspectorate and specialized inspection units in implementing thematic inspections and wide-area inspections to detect and handle violations; propose amendments and supplements to inappropriate mechanisms and policies to enhance financial management and discipline.

State Treasury will send message to announce the account balance to the unit using budget

A number of other points have been included in the report sent by the Ministry of Finance to the Government Inspectorate, such as continuing to focus on reforming and modernizing tax and customs inspection throughout the sector; intensifying the development of information technology applications in risk management and software analysis, classification of tax payers, customs declaration according to the risk level in order to detect violations, thereby strengthening inspection and examination to prevent fraud.