VFF begins supervision of tax, customs procedure reform
The Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) will begin supervising the tax, customs and social insurance procedures reforms in 2015.
Accordingly, from now through the end of June, the VFF and its member organisations will supervise tax and social insurance activities in the major economic areas of Hanoi, HCM City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
The customs sector will be supervised during the last six months of this year, stated President of the VFF Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan at his working session with officials from the finance ministry on March 3.
Nhan said that the programme will be carried out in 2015 and 2016 with the aim to improve the business climate and tax and customs procedures.
He requested the finance ministry to assign officials to coordinate with the VFF to design a specific work plan, including producing initial results by June and summarised results by October, ultimately reporting to the National Assembly and government.
Supervision of the Vietnam Fatherland Front is essential to swiftly carry out simplified policies and ensure enterprises benefit from these policies, affirmed Finance minister Dinh Tien Dung.
According to the 2014 Business Climate Report conducted by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, the time spent on tax procedures in Vietnam was 872 hours for each small- and medium-sized enterprise annually. It also took them 21 days to complete export procedures and another 21 days for import procedures.
To improve the business climate, the government issued Resolution 19 last March to streamline procedures for enterprises to prepare, file and pay taxes in an average of 171 hours annually, in line with that of the Asean 6 bloc including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Meanwhile, the time required for export and import procedures will be cut to 14 days and 13 days, respectively.
As of January 1, tax payment time was slashed by 370 hours. All customs departments across Vietnam have used the Vietnam Automated Cargo and Port Consolidated System and the Vietnam Customs Information System (VNACCS/VCIS).
Source: http://www.intellasia.net/