State-owned enterprises continue to be the leading tax contributors in the list of the 1,000 leading corporate taxpayers in Vietnam , accounting for 58 percent of total tax payments this year.

According to the so-called V1000 profile, released on October 29 by the Vietnam Report Co in cooperation with the General Department of Taxation and online newspaper Vietnam-Net, the top 10 corporate taxpayers included eight SOEs, a joint venture and one domestic private company.

Military-run telecom Viettel, the State-run VNPT Group (which operates mobile phone providers MobiFone and Vinaphone), and the State-run Viet Nam Mobile Telecom Services Co (VMS) were all among the top 10.

Many commercial banks which continue to be majority-owned by the State, including Vietinbank, the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam, Agribank and Asia Commercial Bank, were also high on the list.

Other sectors with companies making significant tax contributions included construction, real estate, building materials, mining, petroleum and food processing.

Rankings were based on the total corporate income tax paid in the three consecutive fiscal years between 2009 and 2011

Despite the dominance of State-owned enterprises, the private sector accounted for 22 percent of tax collections during the period, an increase of 4 percent over last year's survey.

Of 410 new businesses listed in the ranking, 51 percent were from the private sector, compared to just 31 percent last year.

Enterprises in the two leading cities of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi continued to be the nation's primary economic drivers, accounting for 60 percent of corporate taxpayers on the list.-VNA