Taxation - Customs Committed to Continuously Improving Administrative Procedures

In the second annual dialogue on taxation and customs, held recently in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with the participation of thousands of businesses and representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai stressed, "In the next time, the Ministry of Finance is committed to continuing to strongly improve taxation and customs policies to support businesses and create the best business environment for enterprise development.”

Focus on specialised inspection
According to Mr Vu Ngoc Anh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the body will continue the reforms of administrative procedures in order to achieve the following objectives: Innovate comprehensive management practices and export and import tax policies; Complete the legal basis for implementing national one-stop shop (OSS); Continue the reform of customs procedures in the direction of openness and transparency, facilitating import and export business.

Current administrative procedures of customs include 168 procedures; 100 percent of customs units perform procedures through Vietnam Automated Cargo Clearance System - Vietnam Customs Intelligence Information System (VNACCS /VCIS). But the story of specialised inspections was always a hot topic for companies and customs in 2016. That was the basic obstacle to the improvement of the index "cross-border trade transactions" as required by Resolution 19 to improve the business environment, enhance competitiveness and contrary to the commitments under the new generation free trade agreements.

The results of research and fieldwork management, specialised inspection for imported goods in some customs agencies such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Lang Son, Can Tho, Da Nang, Binh Dinh and some businesses in the areas of project GIG shows that, basically, specialised inspection time has not improved. The cost for management and specialised inspection has not decreased. Statistics from the General Department of Customs showed that by June 30, 2016, there were 344 legislation documents stipulating specialised inspection of export and import goods issued by the competent authority, including 21 laws and ordinances; 65 decrees and decisions of the Government and the Prime Minister; 258 circulars and decisions of the ministries related to the field of specialised inspection. In fact, the time in the clearance of goods was shortened, and the solving procedure accounts for only 28 percent of the whole procedure. The important issue here is the need to shorten the specialised inspection time which accounts for 72 percent of the whole cargo clearance time.

With the big number of legal documents on specialised inspection while many items have no Harmonized System (HS) Code, and there is no adequate standards and regulations to carry out the test, customs agencies and businesses are facing many difficulties. Goods subject to quality inspection upon importation are numerous and complex because there are many types of inspection such as food safety inspection; Quarantine (animals, plants, health); culture inspection; regulations on import and export license, import-export conditions. The regulations of specialised inspection for each shipment are also costly for businesses and time-consuming.

Therefore, in 2016 the customs attempted to reform the specialised inspection, and the General Customs Department proposed to the professional management about the implementation of some measures, such as applying risk management methods in specialised inspection; building national specialised inspection portal. This approach has been piloted by the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City since June 15 in Cat Lai and July 12 in Tan Son Nhat Airport, and been proved effective.

Customs Inspection Department - General Department of Customs has operated mobile lab vehicles in the provinces of the northern border region (Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai) where there are a lot of imports and exports subject to quality and food safety inspection.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs also proposed amending several circulars in favour of export activities as: Circular 37/2015/TT-BCT provisions on limits and inspection of the content of formaldehyde and amine derived from dyes in textile products and replace Circular 32/2009 / TT-BCT.

Recommendations to amend several important tax laws
According to the latest statistics from the General Department of Taxation since October 2015, Vietnam's tax policies have been amended and supplemented to match the changes in line with the world trend of integration, contributing to overcoming difficulties for taxpayers.

In 2016, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government and the National Assembly the amended Law 106/2016/QH13 dated June 4th 2016, supplemented some articles of the Law on VAT, the Law on Special Consumption Tax and the Law on Taxation Management which took effect from July 1st 2016; Decree 100/2016 / ND-CP of the Government dated July 1st 2016 detailing and guiding the implementation of some articles of the Law on VAT, the Law on Special Consumption Tax and the Law on Taxation Management which took effect from July 1st 2016.

For the implementation of administrative reforms of tax, the General Department of Taxation continued implementation of Resolution 19/NQ-CP of the Government on the tasks and key measures to continue to improve the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness; Resolution 35 of the Government to support small and medium enterprises. The number of administrative procedures was cut from 385 to 300 procedures. The body will; continue to review, amend and supplement the procedures and rules on tax administration. General Department of Taxation has issued a decision on amending and supplementing 51/70 process and rules.

On electronic taxation filing, so far 100 percent of localities across the country have implemented electronic form for businesses. In 2016, General Department of Taxation has continued to expand online tax system to individuals. In the first phase, it is applied to individuals with rental transactions. The body has signed agreements with 45 commercial banks to implement electronic tax payment in 63 localities, reducing 420 hours for paying tax (from 537 to 117 hours). The total number of businesses registered online paying is above 542,735 among 561,142, accounting for 96.72 percent of active businesses registered to use the service, increased by 1.72 percent increase compared to 2015.

The taxation sector is currently piloting electronic tax refund services. The pilot had received a positive response from organizations and businesses. After summarizing the pilot phase of electronic tax refund, General Department of Taxation will conduct large-scale deployment on a national scale.

According to the report on the business environment in 2016 by the World Bank, the index of Vietnam taxpayers rose 5 ranks, from 173th to 168th position among 189 countries. Notably, according to a survey by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), over 71 percent of taxpayers were satisfied with the results of the reform of the tax authorities in recent years. According to calculations by the international organizations, the number of reduced hours for paying tax helps reduce costs for business and society more than VND7trillion / year.

According to the tax reduction roadmap, the General department of taxation will improve tax policy and tax administrative procedures such as electronic tax declaration, electronic tax filing and electronic tax refund, to facilitate the taxpayers, shorten time tax procedures. Thanks to the determined efforts of all officials and civil servants on the reform of administrative procedures in recent years, the body has received recognition and appreciation from the businesses, the people and the international community.

Le Hien