Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – As of May, the Government's revenue from dividends remained low at only 13.5 trillion VND (602 million USD), equal to only 25 percent of the estimates for the year.
Nguyen Van Phung, Director of the Tax Management Department of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said that this year the dividend estimates gained from enterprises that the State holds a stake in would be roughly 55 trillion VND.
Currently, the State has authorised the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) to represent the State's interests in enterprises. As of December 31, 2015, SCIC's portfolio comprised 197 enterprises, with the State capital's book value being more than 20 trillion VND, accounting for 23 percent of the charter capital and a market value of nearly 95.7 trillion VND.
Phung attributed the low earnings from dividends in the first five months to many of the enterprises not having organised annual shareholders' meetings.
Phung affirmed that State income sources from dividends at enterprises could not be lost as there are many supervisory mechanisms, especially the supervision of those who represent the State in these enterprises.
However, he also said that the payment of dividends depends on decisions made at the shareholders' meetings of the enterprises.
He said that the tax authorities could not make ‘rough interventions' to the dividend payment, but must follow the law besides using the vote made by persons who represent the State in the enterprises.
Statistics from the MoF showed that State budget revenues in the first five months this year was 396.2 trillion VND, equal to only 39.1 percent of the annual estimate, while budget spending reached 466.3 trillion VND, equal to 36.6 percent of the annual estimate.
In the first five months, the country spent 64.55 trillion VND on foreign debt settlement, up 5.3 percent year-on-year. It also disbursed 68 trillion VND for development projects and 332 trillion VND for national defence and administrative governance.
Tumbling crude oil prices cut budget revenue considerably in the period, with revenue from oil in the first five months of 2016 falling sharply by 48.1 percent to 15.9 trillion VND, accounting for only 4 percent of total budget revenue.-VNA
