HCMC businesses speak out about the dark side of inspection activities

Businesses often fear inspections and audits because inspection requirements tend to focus on finding errors rather than guiding, supporting, and accompanying businesses.

That is the information in the "Business situation report for May 2025" sent by the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA) to the City People's Committee.

Specifically, regarding procedures in the business process, businesses often fear inspections and audits, because inspection and audit requirements often focus on finding errors instead of guiding, supporting, and accompanying businesses.

In addition, according to HUBA, businesses have difficulty meeting the conditions if they purchase goods from units with tax risks, must ensure that inventory does not exceed the prescribed rate, must meet the regulations on invoices and documents (time of issuing invoices immediately after receiving money), accounting books, tax declaration and settlement...

In which, any mistake can be punished with high fines, possibly criminal liability.

Many stalls are closed and not operating at An Dong market (District 5, HCMC): Photo: Nguyen Hue

For business registration procedures, the business registration authority requires businesses to have a specific, clear business address with ownership.

In many cases, the authorities do not approve the establishment of business headquarters in apartment buildings, even on the ground floor, separate from other apartments. Some fields also require a practice certificate, and the passing rate of the practice certificate exam in some fields is only about 20%...

Notably, regarding the procedures when dissolving a business, HUBA said that the most difficult thing is the finalization of the tax code. The processing time is often quite long (especially for units with tax risks). Therefore, it leads to the situation of "the business dies but cannot be buried".

In response to the above issues, the Association recommends that the State continue to reform administrative procedures through solutions to enhance responsibility, focus on service attitude and promote digital transformation. In particular, focus on training civil servants on public service ethics and codes of conduct to build a service-oriented and creative administration that still meets the requirements of state management.

There must be a regular inspection and evaluation process and a strict reward and discipline policy for all agencies, units and individuals to promote positive factors, correct negative manifestations, and minimize the situation of shirking responsibility and avoiding work that still exists among a number of civil servants today, the HUBA report stated.

According to statistics, in the first 5 months of 2025, Ho Chi Minh City had 13,894 newly established enterprises with a total registered capital of VND 79,625 billion, down 31.4% in quantity and 54% in capital compared to the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, additional registered capital reached VND 234,131 billion, up 89.7%.

The city also recorded 1,534 dissolved enterprises (up 8.4%), 20,382 enterprises temporarily suspended operations (up 6.7%), and 7,583 enterprises returning to operation - equivalent to the same period.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/doanh-nghiep-tphcm-noi-thang-goc-khuat-hoat-dong-thanh-kiem-tra-2410139.html