About 1.3 Mln Vehicle Owners Pay Registration Fees Electronically

In March 2020, the tax sector launched an online public service for the declaration and payment of registration fees for automobiles and motorbikes. It has proved practically effective, easy and cost-effective by reducing the time to carry out administrative procedures. From its debut to April 10, 2023, owners of more than 1.3 million automobiles and motorbikes paid registration fees of VND9,510 billion electronically, accounting for 12% of the total amount of registration fees paid nationwide. After nearly one month of official nationwide application, electronic declarations for registration fees submitted to tax authorities via the website of the General Department of Taxation were counted 46,184 (accounting for more than 17% of total registration fee declarations). The respective fees collected was more than VND496 billion.

Vehicle owners can pay registration fees through the Government’s national public service portal, banking electronic payment channels and intermediary payment service providers

In response to the development plan for e-government construction in Resolution 17/NQ-CP and directions of the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Taxation has coordinated with relevant governmental agencies (e.g. Department of Traffic Inspection Police under the Ministry of Public Security, Vietnam Register under the Ministry of Transport, Administrative Procedure Control Department under the Government Office, and commercial banks) to upgrade the application system of tax authorities and connect it with the system of concerned parties to deploy online public services for declaration and submission of registration fees for automobiles and motorcycles as scheduled. Specifically, from March 12, 2020, the General Department of Taxation piloted an electronic registration fee payment service and electronic data exchange for automobile and motorcycle tax payments in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. From June 30, 2020, it piloted the electronic tax service system that met electronic registration fee declarations in the two largest cities of the country.

Based on pilot results, from August 1, 2020, the General Department of Taxation expanded the electronic registration fee payment service for automobiles and motorbikes nationwide. On March 20, 2023, it officially operated the electronic registration fee service system for electronic registration fee declaration for automobiles and motorbikes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Accordingly, taxpayers can choose to carry out electronic submission of registration fees declarations for automobiles and motorbikes on the web-based portal of the General Department of Taxation. The system will automatically process and return notices on registration fee payment to registered email and SME messages to mobile phones, applied to vehicles announced by the Ministry of Finance and relevant registration fees announced by tax authorities. In case there are no available registration fees in place, the system will send a notice inviting the taxpayer to the tax office for settlement.

To electronically pay registration fees for automobiles and motorbikes after completing the declaration, taxpayers use the application code on the notice of registration fee payment or a text message on registration fee payment via online payment channels of the National Public Service Portal, via Internet Banking and Mobile Banking payment channels provided by commercial banks or via eTax Mobile application of the General Department of Taxation.

According to experts, the deployment of these online public services has brought practical benefits when the connectivity between the system of the General Department of Taxation with those of relevant agencies to share and use data has met given management requirements and brought online public services for registration fee payment for automobiles and motorbikes. Specifically, the system of the General Department of Taxation is connected to the database of the Vietnam Register to utilize vehicle registration data and pre-fill registration fee declarations. Therefore, the system can correctly determine the pricing of registration fees for relevant types of vehicles and assist taxpayers in completing their declarations; coordinated and connected with commercial banks to launch electronic registration fee payment service for automobiles and motorbikes via Internet Banking and Mobile Banking channels of commercial banks and eTax Mobile application of tax authorities. At the same time, it is connected to the National Public Service Portal to provide electronic registration fee payment services on the portal to help taxpayers with more options in electronic tax payment.

Not only facilitating businesses and people, by connecting and sharing data from tax authorities, traffic police can also access data to check the fulfillment of registration fees of vehicles before completing procedures for vehicle registration and license plate. At the same time, they can use the registration fee payment code, provided by taxpayers (the code is used to submit electronic registration fee declarations) to verify on the vehicle registration system. Doing so, this will help reduce travel time and costs for people, businesses and authorities. In addition, inter-connected registration fee information can help increase the utility of information data provided by ministries and agencies to gradually realize the goals of e-government.

By Huong Hau, Vietnam Business Forum