In HCM City alone, 116 enterprises were approved and in Hà Nội 121 businesses were approved. — Photo vietnamnet.vn

Viet Nam News HÀ NỘI — By May 17, more than one million electronic invoices with validation codes totalling more than VNĐ5.8 trillion were issued by tax authorities.

The total value added tax was worth VNĐ286 billion, the General Department of Taxation reported.

According to Nguyễn Văn Thủy, of the General Department of Taxation, the process to apply a pilot electronic invoice with tax authorities for 200 enterprises in Ha Noi and HCM City has been basically successful. Most of the tax-payers accepted using e-invoices thus bringing practical efficiency and cost savings for businesses.

In HCM City alone, 116 enterprises were approved and in Hà Nội 121 businesses were approved.

Thủy said that the usage of the application of e-invoices with validation code of tax authorities helped accelerate the application of information technology in business management. Thereby, it also helped increase the efficiency of production, business, service quality and the competitiveness of enterprises.

However, the pilot implementation has also encountered some problems. Most of the small and medium-sized enterprises have limited finances, poor managerial skills and obsolete information technology infrastructure. So, the number of enterprises that are capable of meeting conditions for the application of e-invoice remain modest.

Besides, the traditional habits of people and businesses is that they still prefer to use printed invoices when purchasing goods and services. Most of them do not understand the benefit of e-invoices so that they are reluctant to use them.

In addition, the information technology infrastructure of the State-run agencies regarding is still obsolete and lacks investment, thus leading to the limited usage of electronic invoices.

According to the General Department of Taxation, it has set a target of implementing the electronic invoice and electronic invoices with validation code of tax authorities for businesses across the country.

By Decision 1209/QĐ BTC dated June 23, 2015, the Ministry of Finance decided to apply the pilot  usage of electronic invoice with validation code of tax authorities for a number of enterprises in HCM City and Hà Nội, and pilot implementation period is from June 2015 to December 2016. — VNS