Firms’ tax matters to go online

(05-05-2006)

HA NOI — Vietnamese businesses will receive support to apply information technology (IT) in their operations as part of an agreement reached yesterday between the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the General Department of Taxation (GDT).

The IT application support programme for Vietnamese businesses is part of a comprehensive Government plan to upgrade the taxation system by 2010.

The programme, which consists of five major parts, aims to help businesses register their tax payments electronically and build an e-commerce and economic news centre linked with the GDT’s website – a move that will provide VCCI member-companies with tax-relevant information.

According to the agreement, the two parties will conduct surveys on IT application in terms of tax payments and provide businesses with intensive IT training.

GDT Director Nguyen Van Ninh said the agreement will help businesses access a more transparent and more effective tax payment system and as a result, businesses will be able to improve their competitiveness.

Corporate income tax currently accounts for 70 per cent of domestic tax collection, according to the GDT.

The VCCI has often organised seminars to assist enterprises to apply information technology to the process of international integration.

Research conducted by the VCCI and the International Data Group (IDG) in 2004-05 found that most Vietnamese businesses have invested poorly in IT.

As much as 97.3 per cent of surveyed enterprises had not yet applied e-commerce in their business, 93 per cent had internet access, and only 71.1 per cent had websites.

Nguyen Van Thao, Director of the VCCI’s Institute of Information Technology for Business (ITB), attributed the modest IT use in domestic firms to ineffective co-operation between enterprises applying IT and IT service and product suppliers.

He said that domestic enterprises were reluctant to invest in IT because they lacked information about its advantages. Likewise, IT service and product suppliers were facing difficulties in marketing because of a shortage of information about customer needs. — VNS