Minister of Public Security To Lam speaks to the press on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on May 26. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is coordinating with Japan onthe investigation of a Japanese company allegedly paying bribes to Vietnamesetax and customs officials, said Minister of Public Security To Lam on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on May 26.
The case is being examined and inspected by tax andfinancial inspectorate agencies in Vietnam, Lam said.
He further noted that the Vietnamese side has started byexchanging information with Japan as the allegation originated from theJapanese side.
Earlier, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung hasrequested an urgent investigation into the alleged bribery of Vietnamese officialsby Tenma Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan’s plastic product maker TenmaCorporation.
Dung requested the Director-General of the General Department of Taxation andthe Director-General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs to report to the ministry on recent allegations inJapanese media about bribes paid by Tenma Vietnam to the tune of 232,000 USD toavoid paying corporate and value-added tax.
At the same time, he assigned the Ministry's inspection agency toimmediately set up an inspection team to examine the Tax Department and theCustoms Department in northern Bac Ninh province, where Tenma Vietnam islocated.
The case came into the spotlight whenJapanese 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 customsofficials.
According to Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo-based TenmaCorporation confessed the case to the Tokyo District Prosecutor. TenmaCorporation reportedly took the initiative to set up a third-party committee toinvestigate the violation. Bribing foreign governments is a prohibited practicein Japan./.
