Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình has asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to boost administrative reform in tax and customs procedures, to create a more favourable business environment. — Photo mof.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI – Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình has asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to boost administrative reform in tax and customs procedures, to create a more favourable business environment.

The request was made yesterday in his working trip to the MoF to review administrative reform, a top priority for the government.

The deputy PM was told at a meeting with the ministry’s leaders that the ministry had achieved remarkable progress in administrative reform in 2015 and the first half of this year.

By increasing IT application in administrative procedures, it reduced the annual tax-payment time of enterprises by 420 hours to 117 hours. Customs-clearance time was cut down from 21 days to 14 days for exports and 13 days for imports.

The ministry has also simplified dozens of domestic tax and customs procedures. It has carried out e-customs procedures at all customs departments and local custom branches.

While acknowledging the efforts of the ministry in administrative reform, Deputy PM Bình also pointed out remaining problems.

He said the ministry was late in issuing detailed guidelines for governmental policies on areas it was in charge, while some documents were unclear, leading to different implementation among offices and businesses. 

He also lamented complicated regulations on invoices and documents of goods, overlapping tax and customs procedures for exports, intricate goods-verifying procedures after customs clearance.

Some tax and customs officials failed to act responsibly or professionally at work, the Deputy PM said.

He said the ministry needed to adjust overlapping administrative procedure, publish information about necessary documents and procedures relating to tax refunds, tax reduction, and tax filing. He requested a further reduction in the processing time of tax and customs procedures.

The ministry was also asked to improve IT infrastructure in the tax and customs sectors to implement a higher number of online services.

“People and businesses’ satisfaction should be regarded as the measurement” of effectiveness in administrative reform, he said. – VNS