Production and business development, inflation curbing and budget deficit reduction are the targets seriously set by enterprises, ministries and agencies for the early months of 2012.
Proper solutions
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in January, production bears difference in each sector over the same period and fails to concentrate on products for the Tet occasion as often seen every year. The volume of several products for production increased including liquefied petroleum gas (26.3 percent), plastic polypropylene (14.4 percent), diesel (16.1 percent)... The products for the agricultural sector dropped significantly. This is partly because of some companies’ production ceasing due to a big volume of inventories (Ninh Binh phosphate, Viet Tri chemicals). Raw materials for textile exports fell significantly partly due to pending export contracts (fabric woven from polyester fibers decreased by 22 percent, clothing products decreased by 10.9 percent). The difficulty is also reflected in the consumption reduction of many items such as cigarettes, beverages, edible oil, and detergent even during the month of Tet.
In terms of export, as planned, in 2012, exports are expected to increase by 13 percent, reaching 108.8 billion. Notably, two important export groups include agricultural products and fisheries (expected to reach US$20.2 billion, up 2.6 percent over 2011) and processing industrial group (US$ 67.5 billion plan to achieve, up 17.9 percent over 2011). However, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, certain challenges that the agricultural products and fisheries are facing in 2012 are probably stable prices due to their high rate in 2011 and modest exports because of the cultivated area and yields. As for the processing industry commodity groups, given the fact that Vietnam has many export advantages in the textiles, footwear, wood, electronic components, many items in the group depend on the imported raw materials.
At the meeting of the Ministry of Industry and Trade early this week, the representative of the Association of wood processing and handicraft announced that the export of wood products in January fell in comparison to the same period last year. The enterprises are facing difficulties due to high interest rates on capital, leading to the risk of export reduction in quarter 1. Ms Dang Phuong Dung, General Secretary of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) also recognized that export market expansion through trade promotion programs are also facing difficulties because funding for this program is contracted, down to VND15 billion from VND55 billion in 2012.
In order to continue to support enterprises to effectively implement business plan in 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Trade irritate that the key task in February will be the effective exploitation of production capacity and domestic market demand to push strong industrial production. Simultaneously, it is essential to create favorable conditions for businesses to increase production and consumption, actively propose initiatives or specific measures to remove difficulties in production and business activities, closely monitor changes in world markets to take measures in time to support exporters and comply with policies that restrict imports of nonessential, luxury consumer goods, contributing to curb the trade deficit and ensure macroeconomic stability.
Mr Vu Huy Hoang, Minister of Industry and Trade emphasized that businesses should spare no efforts to find out solutions to overcome difficulties in production and export activities. In case of failing to get the difficulties solved, the businesses will request for the Ministry’s assistance. If these difficulties are under the jurisdiction of other ministries, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will report to the Prime Minister or coordinate with relevant ministries to tackle problems. Minister Vu Huy Hoang also added that under any circumstances, the businesses are expected to carry out the production and export plan in the most effective way, ensuring the proper supply for the domestic market.
Procedure facilitation
To support enterprises, the Prime Minister has decided to extend tax submission deadline by 3 months for corporate income tax (CIT) supposed to be paid in Quarter 1, 2-2011, which is applied to small and medium enterprises and the ones using extensive labor until July and October, 2012. According to Mr Nguyen Cong Nghiep, Vice Minister of Finance, the extension of tax submission deadline under this proposal will help the enterprises to have more capital to expand business. The deadline extension combined with others on monetary, credit will promote the efficiency of policies to support enterprises to overcome difficulties and stabilize production.
Mr Nguyen Ngoc Tuc, Director of General Department of Customs reveals that the customs sector will implement e-customs procedures with due attention paid to the quality in terms of width and depth aspect. Specifically, special focus will be laid on the application of information technology application in order to reach the goal of establishing an integrated software system under the centralized data processing model, enabling the receipt of customs declarations, electronic import and export tax collection, e- permits for e-customs service. In particular, the General Department of Customs will establish indicators to assess the satisfaction level of customers, which will enable them to continue to promote better service.
According to Mr Vu Van Truong, Vice Head of General Department of Tax, 2012 will be the year of accelerating online tax declaration to reduce costs for enterprises. To enable this to be successfully implemented, the tax sector will upgrade transmission lines and infrastructure to receive the declaration of the business, avoiding network bottlenecks and risks for the businesses’ tax declaration...
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