General Department of Taxation Leads Finance Sector in IT Application

Since 2008, the Ministry of Finance assigned the Department of Informatics and Financial Statistics to build an annual ICT Index for the financial sector, announce ranking results at the websites http://efinance.vn (or http://taichinhdientu.vn), and provide data for ICT Index construction for the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Vietnam Association for Information Processing (VAIP).

 

2014 was the 6th consecutive year the Department of Informatics and Financial Statistics under the Ministry of Finance collected, analysed, assessed data and announced the report on readiness for ICT development and application in financial sector in 2014 (called ICT Finance Index 2014). Accordingly, ICT Finance Index helped sector-wide units to position and orientate ICT development strategies in a more efficient way.

 

With 68 indicators, the ICT Finance Index 2014 focused on the following areas: IT Infrastructure (nine indicators), IT application (23 indicators), IT human resources (16 indicators), IT investment (13 indicators), and environment - policy (seven indicators). The ICT Finance Index 2014 was constructed completely on the basis of the Ministry of Finance’s apparatus. Accordingly, province/city-level units were organised with a vertical system and Departments of Finance are organised separately to fit assessing and rating requirements. The survey was carried out on five groups with 283 stakeholders, including the group of central agencies with six stakeholders; the group provincial/municipal agencies (Department of Finance, Tax Department, State Treasury, Customs Department and State Reserve) with 244 stakeholders; the group of departments at the Ministry of Finance with 19 stakeholders; the group of non-revenue units at the Ministry of Finance with 10 stakeholders; and the group of enterprises administered by the Ministry of Finance with four stakeholders.

 

At the event, Deputy Finance Minister Vu Thi Mai awarded three central agencies (the first prize to the General Department of Taxation, the second prize to the State Securities Commission, and the third prize to Ministry of Finance’s agencies). According to the ICT Finance Index 2014, the General Department of Taxation ranked first among central agencies with 0.7956 points (also ranked first in 2013). The State Securities Commission jumped to second place with 0.7089 points from the sixth position in 2013. The Ministry of Finance’s agencies ranked third with 0.6512 points.

 

In the group of provincial/municipal level, the Hanoi Department of Finance ranked first among financial agencies with 0.8864 points, followed by the Da Nang Department of Finance with 0.7087 points and the Ha Giang Department of Finance with 0.6206 points. The Phu Tho General Department of Taxation ranked first among tax agencies with 0.7263 points, followed by the Khanh Hoa Department of Taxation with 0.6722 points and the Kon Tum Department of Taxation with 0.6597 points.

 

Tax officials said, with the tax sector reform strategy until 2020 approved by the Prime Minister, IT application and development is crucial to tax sector reform. To ensure better, consistent and modern operations of tax agencies, thus staying on par with other countries in the region and better serving the business community, the tax sector is determined to complete six important tasks in 2015: (1) specify document systems related to the control of administrative procedures: Carrying out the process of administrative procedure control; (2) assess impacts of administrative procedures: Ensuring compliance with Decree 63/2010/ND-CP, Decree 48/2013/ND-CP and Circular 07/2014/TT-BTP; (3) announce publicise and publish administrative procedures; (4) review and simplify administrative procedures to ensure their regularity and continuity, continue to implement the overall scheme for simplification of administrative procedures, citizenship papers and databases relating to migration management (Scheme 986); (5) examine 6-8 local tax agencies on control of administrative procedures, publicity of administrative procedures, reception and settlement of administrative procedures; and (6) receive and handle recommendations as stipulated by the law.