Some coal companies have their tax money "withheld" but don't know who to complain to.

Speaking at the socio -economic discussion session on November 1, delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa - Vice Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee mentioned policies for businesses and entrepreneurs.

“It can be said that in the current period, our businesses are facing many difficulties,” said Ms. Hoa.

Faced with this situation, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 41 on building and promoting the role of entrepreneurs in the new period.

The National Assembly has issued many policies to support businesses, and organized the Vietnam Socio-Economic Forum in 2023 to unlock resources and support businesses in overcoming difficulties. The Government always accompanies and regularly directs the removal of difficulties and obstacles for businesses in each field.

“However, businesses are still facing immediate difficulties and need to take measures to resolve them,” Ms. Hoa said, giving specific contents.

Finance - Banking - Some businesses have their tax money — Delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa - Vice Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee (Photo: Quochoi.vn).

Firstly, outstanding debt of basic construction capital for construction enterprises is still a prominent issue in public investment management; mainly outstanding debt from local budgets.

Notably, there are debts from before 2015. The consequences of this situation are prolonging the project completion time, delaying the putting into operation and use, reducing investment efficiency, and greatly affecting business operations.

Second, the delay in VAT refunds. Tax refunds are the responsibility of the State, but in some cases, tax refunds are very slow. Enterprises also face many difficulties with administrative procedures arising from professional guidance documents.

The report of the Finance - Budget Committee of the assessment, manual nature of operations, complexity, overlapping of documents and lack of criteria for classifying risks of tax refund dossiers have caused great congestion for businesses.

“In fact, some businesses have complained that businesses that violate financial obligations to the State will be severely punished. But businesses that have outstanding debts for basic construction capital and have their tax and VAT refunds “held” causing great damage do not know who to complain to. I suggest that the Government needs to clarify the cause and have more drastic solutions to completely handle this situation,” Ms. Hoa added.

The third difficulty, according to the delegate, is credit; many small and medium-sized enterprises find it difficult to fully meet the loan conditions of credit institutions.

Although the State Bank has issued Circular 02 regulating credit institutions to restructure debt repayment terms and maintain debt groups to support customers in difficulty, there is still a need for more open procedures and research on more specific and flexible credit products for this type of business.

Ms. Hoa also said that the inspection and examination work of the State management agencies for enterprises in some cases is not really effective. To help enterprises detect violations early, from a distance to promptly correct.

“I propose that the prosecution, inspection and examination agencies continue to speed up the investigation, prosecution, trial and final settlement of related cases so that affected enterprises can be restructured, soon recover production and business and continue to contribute to society,” the female delegate suggested.

Problems from professional guidance documents of the tax industry

According to the report of the Finance and Budget Committee sent to the National Assembly Standing Committee on the results of the thematic supervision of the implementation of legal regulations on VAT refund for exports, the supervision delegation worked with many tax departments across the country and businesses.

The results show that VAT refund settlement in 2022 and especially in the first 6 months of 2023 is slower than in previous years, with only 79% of refund records resolved.

Specifically, while the number of pre-checked records increased compared to previous years (25%), the number of pending records - being processed and not yet completed - was 1,839 records, accounting for 17%. As of August 31, the number of pending records remained at 647 records.

Industries with delayed tax refunds include: wood and wood products industry with 85% of files being processed for refunds; tapioca starch industry with 45%; rubber industry with 62%; electrical and electronic components industry with 59% (lower than the normal rate of over 90%). Notably, the amount of money collected after inspection only accounts for an insignificantly small proportion.

The National Assembly's monitoring delegation assessed that the rate of backlog in these four areas has increased significantly compared to the general level, especially in the first half of 2023. Meanwhile, the number of files transferred to pre-inspection has increased significantly, but the amount of money detected is "particularly low".

This partly shows that the risk of fraud may not be high, or that post-refund inspection and examination work is not yet effective. Not to mention that some files, after being transferred to the police, have been answered by the police that there are no signs of crime and the tax authority is still stopping the refund, causing great frustration for businesses and associations.

The monitoring delegation assessed the problems and backlog arising from the tax sector's professional guidance documents, and requested to step up inspection, examination and review work.

“The manual nature of the procedures, the complexity, the overlap and the number of warning documents, along with the lack of clarity in scope and the lack of unified application of risk management associated with the application of information technology have caused major bottlenecks for export enterprises,” the monitoring team assessed .

Source