Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the teleconference of the financial sector on January 8 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the financial sector to stay updated with the development of Industry 4.0 so as to expand the tax base.
He attended the sector’s teleconference on January 8 with the 63 provinces and cities. The event aimed to review the sector’s performance in 2017 and set tasks for this year.
A report at the event read that by the end of December 31, 2017, total state budget balancing revenues are estimated at more than 1.283 quadrillion VND (56.3 billion USD), about 71 trillion VND (3.1 billion USD) or 5.9 percent higher than the estimates.
Nearly 624,000 or 100 percent of businesses had used online tax declaration services while almost 98 percent of them had registered e-tax payment by the end of last year.
Addressing the meeting, PM Phuc recognised the financial sector’s efforts while also pointing out its shortcomings.
He said financial policies, especially tax policies, have changed too fast and too much, affecting people and businesses. Such vagaries show that the making of policies has yet to keep up with the socio-economic life.
He said tax policies in particular and financial policies in general must keep pace with the country’s changes and be stable for a fairly long term, about five to ten years.
The Government leader pointed out a fact that focus is still on raising tax rates instead of expanding the tax base to ensure State budget collection.
It is necessary to stay updated with the development of Industry 4.0, which is happening in various economic sectors like e-commerce, online services and online games, he stressed, considering them as “gold mines” to expand the tax base. Meanwhile, the financial sector is still struggling with the management and exploitation of these taxation sources.
PM Phuc asked the sector to align existing tax policies with OECD and United Nations standards. He also called for its staff’s better sense of responsibility towards the society, people and businesses so as to eradicate lubrication payments in the sector.-VNA
VNA
