HÀ NỘI – The General Department of Taxation is hastening the implementation of online tax refunds on a national scale, a part of the tax reform effort, to create favourable conditions for businesses.

This is a critical issue as tax reimbursement procedures remained burdensome to firms while the country was striving to improve the business climate following the Government’s Resolution 19.

A pilot implementation of online tax refunds was underway in 13 provinces and cities, which was expected to be expanded nationwide within the first quarter of next year.

The tax authorities targeted that at least 90 per cent of filings for tax refunds would be conducted online.

Firms would not have to travel back and forward between tax departments, Lê Thị Duyên Hải, deputy director of the Department for Tax Declaration and Accounting, said, adding that it would help save time and effort as well as reducing difficulties in tax reimbursement.

Tax watchdogs, however, said that the tax reimbursements must be put under tight management because the refunds were taken from the State budget.

Đinh Công Khương, chairman of Khương Mại Steel Service Trading Co., Ltd, said that tax refund procedures remained complicated and time-consuming, adding that slow reimbursements affected business operations.

Speed up

The General Department of Taxation is also pushing online tax filing and payment.

Statistics showed that as of November, 96.7 per cent of around 550,000 businesses nationwide registered to pay tax online and 93.7 per cent of them registered to conduct online tax payments with banks.

The tax revenues collected online totaled more than VNĐ404.6 trillion (US$18 billion) with 2 million transactions conducted through 43 banks.

The Government’s Resolution 19 about improving the business climate and enhancing national competitiveness set a goal that at least 95 per cent of firms would pay tax online by the end of 2016 by three criteria including the number of firms registering to pay tax online, the number of online tax payment receipts and the value of tax collection.

As of November, eight provincial departments fulfilled the goal. - VNS