IFC to Help Reform Vietnam Tax Procedures

The International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, and the Vietnam’s General Tax Department will co-implement a technical assistance project to reform and modernize the tax systems from July of 2008 to December of 2010.

 

IFC will assist the general tax department to improve the legal tax environment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), standardize tax regulations and optimize effectiveness of tax management systems by cutting down expenses for taxpayers and administrative expenditures.

 

Vice Head of the department Le Hong Hai said that it takes 30 months to implement the project. During that time, local tax officials and international experts will jointly review SME’s abiding by tax laws, remove unnecessary tax procedures resulting in rising expenditures and refer to international practices in streamlining the tax procedures.

 

Director of IFC in Vietnam, Sin Fong Won said that SMEs account for 90 per cent of the total in Vietnam, so the focus on SMEs is a right choice.

 

Sin Fong Won added the World Bank will directly coordinate with, regularly update and report on Vietnam’s business climate.

 

One thing should be noteworthy is SMEs do not consider corruption as hurdles needing removing, but “unavoidable costs” during their operations. (Vietnam Financial Times)