General Director of the General Department of Taxation Bui Van Nam

State budget collection in the first quarter of 2014 recorded a significant increase of nearly 16% over the first quarter of last year, bringing about favourable conditions to implement budget spending, ensure a balanced budget and maintain macroeconomic stability. Nhan Dan reporter Song Tra discussed the issue with Bui Van Nam, general director of the General Department of Taxation.

Q: How do you assess the budget revenue collected in the first quarter of this year?

A: First-quarter budget collection in 2014 saw a substantial increase compared to first-quarter revenues in recent years, which were affected by economic difficulties and sluggish growth.

The domestic collection in the first quarter of this year was recorded at nearly VND134 trillion (US$6.2 billion), equivalent to 24.8% of the annual estimate and 16.5% higher than the same period last year. It was also the highest first-quarter revenue in the past three years.

First-quarter domestic collection in 2012 accounted for 22.7% of the year's estimate, and Q1 figures in 2013 made up 20.9% of that year’s estimated total.

In addition, the Q1 tax collection deriving directly from production and business activities, which accounted for 75% of total domestic collection, reached 25.2% of the year's estimate and was 20% higher than Q1 last year. Revenue from house and land taxes, which accounted for 8% of total domestic collection, was also 17.2% higher than during the same period last year. Q1 revenue from other sectors met 26.8% of the estimate for the whole year, and rose by 8.6% against Q1 in 2013.

Q: In your opinion, what are the reasons for the robust results of Q1’s domestic revenue?

A: It can be said that this is the result of close and effective co-ordination between central and local authorities. The results represent the sound leadership of the Government, the directions of the Finance Ministry and the efforts of tax authorities who strengthened budget collection measures early this year to prevent tax pileup in the middle and end of the year.

The finance sector has also implemented several new policies that have helped increase budget revenue—for instance, the fines collected from traffic safety violations, collection from accrued corporate income and others.

The increase in revenue may also be attributed to tightened inspection and supervision of budget collection, VAT refunds, transfer pricing, e-commerce business, online business and so on. In the first two months of this year, nearly 5,500 enterprises were inspected, resulting in an additional VND1 trillion (US$47 million) paid to the state budget. The implementation of such comprehensive measures has brought about positive budget revenue results in the first quarter.

Q: What measures will the taxation sector focus on to continue promoting these results in the remaining quarters of 2014?

A: Tax authorities at all levels will continue undertaking measures that have proven effective and that are aligned with the guidance of the Government, Finance Ministry and local authorities.

Moreover, tax agencies will strengthen inspection over tax collection with the focus on enterprises that engage in associated activities, suffer losses, involve transfer pricing, run a high risk of taxation payment and those that do e-commerce business.

Debt management and tax debt enforcement will be tightened to prevent the arising of new tax debts. Taxation agencies will carry out new policies to facilitate enterprises in accumulating capital for production and business activities in order to nurture these sources of revenue. At the same time, tax violations will be handled strictly to prevent losses to the state budget, contributing to increasing revenue in a sustainable way.

NDO