Regularly review and amend tax and customs policies to facilitate businesses

Mrs. Le Nhu Quynh, Director of the Import-Export Duty Department (General Department of Vietnam Customs). Photo: Thái Bình

Speaking at the first panel discussion of the Seminar "Women's role in trade facilitation" held by Customs News in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on March 23, Mrs. Le Nhu Quynh, Director of the Import-Export Duty Department, General Department of Vietnam Customs, said: “With the majority of customs officers and employees being female, although there were still many difficulties, the women of the Import-Export Duty Department had made great efforts to become ‘good at managing home life with work’.

This was proven by the achievements of the Import-Export Duty Department when participating in the formulation and implementation of the import-export duty policy.

For example, in the field of legal policy development, the Import-Export Duty Department researched and participated in drafting the Law on Import-Export Duty, the Law on Value-Added Tax (VAT), Law on Excise Tax, and the Law on Environmental Protection Tax, Law on Tax Administration, Law on Customs; Decrees and Circulars guiding these Laws; preferential and special preferential import and export tariff schedules suitable to Vietnam's conditions and circumstances as well as international commitments.

The early implementation of the Agreements/Conventions has contributed to facilitating the negotiation process of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), international/regional economic integration; contributing to the gradual transparency of tax policies, enabling businesses to proactively calculate business efficiency, respecting the value of negotiations and transactions in buying and selling, and encouraging trade development.

In the field of fulfilling legal policies, the Import-Export Tax Department has advised, directed and guided to perform the task of implementing tax legislation and management.

The Department has actively developed and submitted to the General Department of Vietnam Customs to issue a tax accounting regime applied in the whole sector; the collection process follows the principle that taxpayers declare, calculate and pay taxes by themselves, and customs authorities perform tax management functions through inspecting and supervising the compliance with of taxpayers. Thus, it has contributed to reducing product costs, clearance time, and tax administration costs.

In addition, the Department has also organized, guided and directed the development of budget revenue estimates in line with the actual development of the economy, in accordance with the orientation of the Government, ministries and branches; regularly reported on the state revenue monthly, quarterly or irregularly under the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Finance and relevant ministries and sectors; applied information technology in the formulation of revenue estimates, tax enforcement; tax debt management and tax accounting.

Besides that, the Department has also proposed to implement solutions to exploit revenue sources, prevent revenue loss, prevent trade fraud, tax evasion, etc. (amend the import and export tax, VAT, excise tax, improve macro-management, boost exports, limit imports of high-end consumer goods, control trade deficit, strictly manage taxable prices of sensitive products with high tax rates and high value) on that basis contribute to protecting production, encouraging and directing investment in domestic production to develop effectively.

Guest speakers participate first panel discussion of the seminar. Photo: Thái Bình

“At the same time, it helps the sector successfully fulfill its tax collection targets for many consecutive years in the condition that it is required to cut taxes in accordance with multilateral and bilateral agreements with the region, the world and the increase of smuggling, trade fraud, tax evasion with increasingly sophisticated tricks and forms," Mrs. Le Nhu Quynh said.

Leaders of the Import-Export Duty Department also mentioned the factor of the performance of guiding the implementation of legal documents and solving problems related to tax operations in localities. It contributed to facilitating the operation of local customs units and the business community, actively participating in business dialogues periodically or irregularly, contributing to facilitating the operation of local customs departments and the business community.

Notably, in order to check the observance of legal policies by customs declarants and taxpayers based on the principle of self-declaration, self-calculation, and self-payment of taxes, the Department has renovated its inspection and examination activities through the following methods: direct inspection at the headquarters of Customs units, on-site inspection, inspection through the centralized management database system relating to HS codes, values; inspection through the online supervision system at the General Department of Vietnam Customs instead of only conducting on-site inspections or inspections at headquarters of the Customs authority.

The Import-Export Duty Department, including the great contribution of female customs officers and employees, would continue to follow the direction of developing the Customs Development Strategy in 2021 - 2030, especially participating in the formulation and implementation of legal policies.

Specifically, for the task of formulating tax and legal policies, Mrs. Quynh said that the Department would regularly monitor and evaluate applicable legal documents; reviewing, proposing and submitting to competent authorities for formulation and amendment of policies and laws on tax and customs legislation in the direction of simplifying administrative procedures, facilitating people and businesses in production and business activities to comply with international commitments and standards.

Paying attention to the application of management policies of VAT and excise tax for goods at the import stage, consistent with goods at the domestic stage through reforming the tax system in accordance with the country's situation and international commitments; supplementing, completing and simplifying taxes to uniformly apply tax policies and tax administration procedures.

“For the implementation of policies and laws on tax and customs law, the Department determined to research and strongly apply information technology in forecasting, making, and implementing annual revenue estimates; continuing to improve the processes and regulations in the implementation of policies and laws on tax and customs legislation in the direction of clearly defining the responsibilities of ‘each stage, each level, each position’, avoiding the situation of ‘shifting responsibility’ or ‘performing improperly’," Mrs. Le Nhu Quynh stated.