Tax collections increase as firms report stable growth
(VNS) The head of the General Department of Taxation's Large Enterprise Tax Management Office, Dang Ngoc Minh, told The Dau Tu (Investment) that problems in some industries were not cutting into tax collections.
How have large enterprises been affected by the economic downturn?
This year's economy is worse than in previous years, so large groups and companies have faced bigger challenges. However, compared with small- and medium-sized enterprises, most large companies under our tax surpervision are maintaining stable growth, except for those in real estate, construction and automobile assembling.
In the first nine months of the year, tax collections from large enterprises rose more than 10 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
Companies in the fields of petrol, beverages and telecommunications made considerable contributions.
How have companies in the finance and banking sector fared?
We directly oversee and manage the tax collection of 35 corporate groups and corporations, with 415 of their subsidiaries operating in key fields of the economy across the country. We closely supervise the tax collections of not only State-run groups and corporations, but also large joint-stock enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises such as Toyota Vietnam, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam and many commercial banks.
Credit activities are problematic now, with a smaller gap existing between deposit interest rates and lending interest rates. There is also a much higher non-performance debt. The situation is even worse for small-scale commercial banks with unstable financial capacity and low market share. But the six banks under our tax supervision are operating in a stable manner and contribute a great deal to the State budget.
Can you give us an idea of how large companies will perform next year?
According to the General Department of Statistics, GDP growth in the third quarter reached 5.35 per cent, compared with 4 per cent and 4.66 per cent in the first and second quarter, respectively. The Ministry of Planning and Investment anticipates that the GDP growth would continue to rise in the fourth quarter, helping GDP growth for the entire year to reach 5.2 per cent.
The ministry also estimates that GDP growth will reach 5.5 per cent next year. These are signs of a minor economic recovery. We are upbeat that the operation of large enterprises will improve and continue to contribute greatly to the country's socio-economic development.
Viet Nam has about 471,500 companies. The number of large businesses under tax supervision of the General Department of Taxation is between 800 and 1,200.
These companies contribute up to 70-80 per cent of the total taxes and fees received by the State. —VNS