HÀ NỘI — Hoàng Trung Hải, Secretary of the Hà Nội City Party Committee, met with the Hà Nội Department  of Taxation (HDT) on Tuesday to discuss their work in the past seven months and upcoming tasks for this year.  

During the meeting, Nguyễn Thế Mạnh, HDT’s Director, reported the city’s total payment to the State budget for the first seven months of 2017 was about VNĐ107.78 trillion (US$4.8 billion), 57.5 per cent of the department’s yearly goal and an 18.4 per cent increase from the same period in 2016.

Various economic sectors in the city recorded growing budget contributions, with the private trade and industrial sector increasing 25.1 per cent in the first seven months year-on-year, the foreign direct sector rising 21.2 per cent and taxes from individual income growing 26.1 per cent.

Mạnh also highlighted the HDT’s shining example among tax authorities nationwide, particularly in online tax payment and declaration. Since the beginning of 2017, up to 98 per cent of businesses operating in Hà Nội have been declaring income tax via the HDT’s online platform, while 95 per cent have been submitting tax payments online.

Furthermore, in the first seven months of 2017, the HDT was the first department to successfully implement online tax inspections, in addition to traditional methods of investigation.

The department completed more than 11,000 tax examinations, or 62.8 per cent of 2017’s target, retrieving up to VNĐ1.5 trillion that would have been otherwise lost to tax fraud, up by 12.6 per cent from the same period in 2016. In total, since the beginning of the year, the HDT has managed to cut VNĐ1.48 trillion in tax losses and VNĐ177 billion in tax deduction losses.

Mạnh added that for the first seven months in 2017, his department issued more than 1.3 million notifications of overdue income tax and published seven lists with 939 overdue taxpaying units with total unpaid amount of VNĐ2.85 trillion. They also retrieved over VNĐ7 trillion in overdue tax, cutting outstanding debts by nine per cent from the end of 2016.

As well as retrieving businesses’ income tax, the HDT also improved tax collection in other areas, such as monitoring taxation from ecommerce activities, real estate and land, automobiles and petrol stations.

Hải lauded the HDT’s efforts in accomplishing their duties, especially their innovation in using technology, helping tax payers and building a database.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Finance Minister Đỗ Hoàng Anh Tuấn stated that for the remaining five months of 2017, the HDT should focus on improving their tax submission procedures and identifying businesses with signs of tax fraud.

Hải concluded that with the efforts they have been showing for the last seven months, the HDT will continue to enhance efficiency in their tasks, work with other government departments and encourage firms to pay their taxes on time. — VNS