Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has ordered the suspension of tax and customs officials implicated in the alleged bribery by Tenma Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan’s plastic product maker Tenma Corporation, according to an official letter issued on May 26.

In the official letter sent to the general departments of taxation and customs, Dung requested the top leaders of the two departments to suspend officials involving in tax and post-customs clearance inspections of Tenma Vietnam from work for 15 days to serve inspection work.

Earlier, the minister has requested the two general departments to report to the Ministry of Finance on recent allegations in Japanese media about bribes paid by Tenma Vietnam to the tune of 232,000 USD to avoid paying corporate and value-added tax.

At the same time, he assigned the ministry's inspection agency to immediately set up an inspection team to examine the Tax Department and the Customs Department in northern Bac Ninh province, where Tenma Vietnam is located.

The case came into the spotlight when Japanese media including Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Kyodo news agency and Nikkei, reported that Tenma Vietnam gave a bribe of 25 million JYP (232,000 USD) to Vietnamese customs officials.

According to Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo-based Tenma Corporation confessed the case to the Tokyo District Prosecutor. Tenma Corporation reportedly took the initiative to set up a third-party committee to investigate the violation. Bribing foreign governments is a prohibited practice in Japan./.

VNA