Minister of Finance admits 'not fulfilling responsibility' because new law has been amended

thuế VAT - Ảnh 1. — Minister Nguyen Van Thang - Photo: P.THANG

Expressing gratitude to the Government, the Ministry of Finance and the tax sector for truly listening, understanding and being responsible to businesses to quickly and promptly amend the VAT Law to remove difficulties for tens of thousands of agricultural and aquatic product processing enterprises and agricultural export enterprises, delegate Tran Huu Hau (Tay Ninh) continued to raise issues.

Tens of thousands of billions of dong in tax payments make businesses difficult

Specifically, the amendment to the regulation allows enterprises and cooperatives not to declare and pay VAT but to deduct input VAT on products of crops, forests, livestock, aquaculture, and fishing that have not been processed into other products or have only undergone normal preliminary processing and are traded commercially.

According to delegates, amending this regulation will help Vietnamese export enterprises reduce tens of thousands of billions of dong in capital spent on paying taxes and interest, which will then be refunded by the State.

"In terms of money, it seems that the business does not lose, but in terms of value, the business loses a lot, not only paying interest on the loan to pay for the prepaid tax, but that money, if put into business, will generate more profit.

In the difficult conditions of Vietnamese agricultural products when competing in the international market, just a small percentage of profit can help businesses a lot, helping them compete firmly" - Mr. Hau raised the issue.

Meanwhile, delegate Ta Van Ha ( Da Nang ) told the story of a small-scale enterprise exporting agricultural products that has incurred a debt of 6 billion VND since July. Although this amount has been refunded, the enterprise must borrow from the bank, pay it and pay interest.

Meanwhile, the tax industry has only that much human, but it must be determined that tax refunds are very difficult, hard, and cautious, so they cannot be completed in 45 days as prescribed. For example, pepper and cashew nut associations have not yet refunded many tax refunds from 2021, causing difficulties for businesses.

Modifications to meet practical requirements

Explaining the above opinions, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang acknowledged that the responsibility had not been fulfilled when the law had been put into effect for only a few months and had to be amended. However, based on the reality that when the law came into effect, many, very large problems arose for both state-owned enterprises and enterprises and cooperatives, so it was necessary to amend this content.

According to the Minister, this tax policy has been in effect since 2008, determining that this subject is subject to a 5% tax, but many businesses take advantage of this by buying and selling invoices in a roundabout way. Therefore, the VAT Law in 2016 was amended to remove the subject of tax, and changed in 2024 to include the subject of tax. This causes difficulties in implementation, so it is proposed to amend and reapply the regulation from 2016 - which has been implemented for a long time.

Mr. Thang also affirmed that he has prepared all the conditions and resources to ensure that there are no risks or difficulties during the implementation process, as businesses are eagerly waiting for the draft law to be passed this time.

Clearly defined so that no declaration is required but deductions are allowed

According to delegate Ha Sy Dong ( Quang Tri ), the current problems mainly come from the implementation stage, especially the long tax refund period, lack of transparent search tools and inconsistency in application. Therefore, amending the law too soon when the guidelines are still being finalized can cause policy deviation and disrupt production and business activities.

Regarding tax policies for agricultural products, special goods, waste and by-products, delegate Dong said that the report still had lengthy explanations but did not clarify the operational criteria. Therefore, he suggested that the National Assembly request clear regulations in the law or assign the Ministry of Finance to issue a list of goods according to HS codes, with export ratio criteria to apply the "no declaration but deductible" mechanism, avoiding arbitrary expansion through instructions.

At the same time, there must be a minimum set of required documents, such as contracts, collection vouchers, transportation documents, and cooperative confirmation; along with a unified form to prevent round-robin trading.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-truong-tai-chinh-nhin-nhan-chua-lam-tron-trach-nhiem-vi-luat-moi-thi-hanh-da-sua-20251209152824226.htm