Hà Nội will experience a strong reduction in State budget revenue due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Photo thuongtruong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The chairman of Hà Nội’s People's Committee has asked the city’s Tax Department to put forward support measures for businesses and a realistic budget collection scenario after assessing the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic on the manufacturing and service sectors.

Chairman of Hà Nội People's Committee Nguyễn Đức Chung made the statement during a working session with the Hà Nội Tax Department on Tuesday about budget collection and solutions to help businesses and taxpayers that suffered losses due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Tax Department needs to listen to the opinions of the business community about difficulties they have faced so the city can develop suitable policies, he said.

Director of the Hà Nội Tax Department Mai Sơn said that Hà Nội’s tax revenue this year is likely to fall against the State budget estimate of Hà Nội for 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Tax Department has proposed four scenarios on reducing State budget revenues this year. Specifically, if the COVID-19 epidemic ends in the first quarter of 2020, the budget revenue is expected to fall by 1.82-2.33 per cent to VNĐ4.2 trillion-4.5 trillion (US$178.7 million-191.5 million), excluding State budget revenue from land.

If the epidemic ends in the second quarter of this year, the revenue would drop by 2.85-4.06 per cent to VNĐ6.6-9.4 trillion.

If the epidemic lasts until the third quarter, it is expected to plunge by 4.67-5.49 per cent to VNĐ10.8-12.7 trillion.

Meanwhile, if the epidemic continues until the fourth quarter, the State budget revenue reduction is expected to be 6.48-7.17 per cent to VNĐ15-16.6 trillion.

Chung said that those scenarios are realistic, but the department needs to keep its eye on unpredictable developments of the epidemic and then have more detailed assessments on the epidemic’s economic impacts in Hà Nội.

The epidemic will have a great impact on the municipal economy and enterprises’ production from the end of the first quarter and the impacts will be greater in the second and third quarters, he said. That will cause production and consumption to decline sharply.

To deal with the difficulties in State budget collection due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Hà Nội Tax Department will promote administrative procedure reform and electronic tax projects. Of which, it must develop an electronic invoice project as scheduled and expand electronic tax collection without using cash from individuals, the An ninh Thủ đô (Capital Security) newspaper reported.

At the same time, the department will implement policies of the Government and Hà Nội to remove difficulties and provide support for taxpayers. It will actively follow production and business activities of enterprises and taxpayers during the epidemic to have suitable solutions on removing their difficulties.

The department will also have measures to reduce tax debts and increase State budget revenue from land to compensate for the budget revenue reduction in production and services due to the epidemic.  VNS