Directive No. 4139-TC/TCT on strengthening management of state budget revenue in the last months of 1996

DIRECTIVE

DECISION NO. 4139 TC/TCT OF THE MINISTER OF FINANCE ON November 18, 1996 STRENGTHENING MANAGEMENT OF TAX COLLECTION IN THE LAST MONTHS OF 1996
IN THE LAST MONTHS OF 1996

To effectively implement Directive No. 790/TTg dated October 26, 1996 of the Prime Minister on strengthening tax collection management, settling outstanding debts, and ensuring the completion of the 1996 tax revenue plan, the Minister of Finance requests:

1- For tax authorities: The Director General of the State Tax Administration shall instruct local tax bureaus to require tax officers to closely monitor taxpayers;

- Not allowing enterprises to arbitrarily adjust revenues or retain amounts due to the state budget.

- Specifically identifying arrears from 1995 carried over to 1996, the amount of revenue collected into the state budget for the first ten months of 1996, specifically identifying the arrears as of the end of October 1996, and estimating the amount of revenue expected to be generated in the last two months of the year; based on this information, issue specific notices to each business entity regarding the amount due for November and December 1996, without allowing arrears (except for newly generated taxes not yet due according to the law) to carry over to 1997.

- Conducting thorough reviews of each area, each type of revenue, and each enterprise, focusing particularly on key businesses with large revenue volumes.

- For entities with significant arrears, clearly identify the reasons and take measures to immediately collect the arrears according to the following principles:

+ Arrears from 1995 as per the final settlement and value-added tax, special consumption tax, and usage fees generated in the first ten months of 1996 must be immediately collected into the state budget. Regarding income tax, estimates should be made based on projected revenue for the last two months of the year to accurately reflect actual conditions; notify and require units to promptly pay into the state budget.

+ State-owned enterprises suffering losses due to external factors and eligible for reduced usage fees may only temporarily delay payment of the corresponding usage fee arrears. Other arrears must be promptly urged to be paid into the state budget.

+ Enterprises eligible for exemption or reduction of value-added tax or special consumption tax, which have submitted applications for exemption or reduction to the tax authority but have not received a decision, the tax authority must verify and determine the specific amount exempted or reduced, and temporarily allow retention up to the amount determined to be exempted or reduced according to the law.

+ Enterprises producing goods subject to special consumption tax, with small production scale, low equipment and technology levels, unable to fully pay the special consumption tax as required by law, must determine the business situation at the unit to ascertain the amount due according to the law and the actual ability to pay, the temporary tax payment cannot be lower than the difference between total sales revenue and total cost. After determining the temporary payment according to the above principle, the tax authority will specifically determine the arrears of special consumption tax that can be delayed for each enterprise.

+ Taxes and amounts due to the state budget that units allocate for basic construction investment, if not approved by the Government or the Ministry of Finance, must be immediately collected into the state budget. If approved by the Government or the Ministry of Finance to retain for investment under the form of recorded income and expenditure, the Tax Bureau has the responsibility to coordinate with the Investment and Development Bureau and the State Capital and Asset Management Bureau at enterprises to guide units to quickly complete the procedures for recorded income and expenditure.

+ For enterprises still owing taxes but have been dissolved or ceased operations awaiting dissolution, or have been operating at a loss for a long time and unable to pay taxes, a record of the arrears should be established and reported to the Ministry of Finance (State Tax Administration) for consolidation and submission to the Prime Minister.

- Anti-tax evasion teams organize rapid inspections combined with focused inspections of all enterprises within their jurisdiction, concentrating on the following contents: Inspect accounting records and issuance of invoices and vouchers for enterprise business activities; thereby, determine the legitimacy of various costs in the cost price and circulation fees, grasp the selling prices of enterprise products to accurately calculate and collect all generated taxes, strictly handle cases of tax evasion.

- Enterprises that have switched to land rental should calculate and urge enterprises to immediately pay land rent into the state budget.

- For the non-state sector:

+ Strengthen inspections of individual businesses, especially compliance with private accounting systems for larger individual businesses; individual businesses paying taxes based on declarations to prevent tax evasion on turnover.

+ Recommend that People's Committees revoke business licenses for enterprises that have been issued licenses but are not operating, generating no turnover, or operating at a loss and being ineffective, in order to strengthen state management effectiveness and prevent budget revenue loss. + Continue to focus on directing and managing to prevent tax evasion on various types of taxes such as construction taxes, transportation business taxes, fishing taxes, slaughter taxes, and transit taxes.

- Review and re-establish all types of fees and charges currently collected by departments and levels according to the spirit that all revenues must use financial receipts issued by the Ministry of Finance and must be reflected through the state budget, settle all temporarily retained fees and charges according to joint circulars or decisions by the Ministry of Finance such as maritime safety guarantee fees, bridge tolls, technical inspection and environmental protection fees for road vehicles, passenger service fees at airports, foreign aircraft overflight charges, air traffic control fees for domestic and international air transport units.

- Launch a sprint movement in the last two months of the year, assign specific tax collection tasks to subordinate units, promptly reward individuals and units performing well, and strictly deal with negative phenomena in the industry to complete and exceed the annual state budget revenue collection task on the assigned territory.

2- For the State Treasury:

- Arrange personnel and means to expand additional direct tax collection points through the State Treasury, especially in the last months of the year.

- Fully and correctly account for all revenues into the state budget according to regulations.

3. With respect to the State Revenue and Asset Management Bureau at enterprises:

- Assist enterprises with measures to resolve difficulties regarding capital and financial mechanisms, handle existing issues related to taxes in approved final accounts so that enterprises have the conditions to fulfill their tax obligations properly and avoid arrears in tax payments.

- Strictly manage the financial system and accounting records at enterprises. Guide enterprises to strictly implement the Financial Management Regulations and Business Accounting for State-Owned Enterprises (annexed to Decree No. 59/CP dated October 3, 1996 of the Government) to enhance production and business efficiency and contribute to increasing the accumulation for the State budget. Organize the inspection of accounting work of enterprises according to the functions assigned by the Ministry to the General Department for State Capital and Asset Management at enterprises.

4. Provincial Departments of Finance and Prices:

- Closely coordinate with the tax sector to discuss with relevant departments at the local level to settle all outstanding taxes from 1995 and newly generated in 1996 to be collected into the State budget.

- Coordinate with the Land Administration Department and the Tax Bureau to quickly implement land leasing for organizations eligible for land leasing under Circular No. 856/LB/ĐC-TC dated July 12, 1996 issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the General Land Administration on guiding domestic organizations to prepare land lease registration files and pay land lease fees.

All revenues generated within the locality's territory must be reflected in the State budget, particularly revenues from the sale of state-owned housing, land use rights fees, charges, and other non-budgetary revenues decided and collected by the People's Committees at various levels.

5. State Audit Office:

- The State Audit Office needs to coordinate with provincial finance inspectors and tax inspectors to conduct inspections on the compliance with tax laws by enterprises within their jurisdiction, handle outstanding tax arrears, identify hidden taxes, increase revenue for the State budget, and take measures to compel inspected entities to fully pay discovered taxes through audits into the State budget.

The Ministry requests the State Audit Office, Provincial Departments of Finance and Prices, and the Tax Bureau to strictly implement Directive No. 424/TTg dated August 23, 1993 of the Prime Minister regarding the coordination among law enforcement agencies to ensure close cooperation, high inspection effectiveness, avoid overlapping and duplication, and not cause difficulties for business operations.

With only two months left until the end of 1996, the Ministry requires the General Department of Taxation and the organizations mentioned in this Directive to effectively perform their tasks according to their respective functions and related matters to intensify tax collection in the remaining months of the year as stipulated in this Directive.