By the end of this year, account holders at five commercial banks in 18
cities and provinces across Vietnam will be able to pay their taxes
online.
Tax offices will forward online tax declarations that
they receive to banks, which will transfer money from taxpayers’
accounts to the State budget, said Pham Quang Toan, head of the
department’s Information Technology division.
A pilot run of the
online tax payment facility for taxpayers in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Vinh
Phuc with accounts at the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and
Development of Vietnam (BIDV) has already been carried out, he said.
So far, 250 enterprises have paid their taxes online.
The
number of enterprises using e-tax declarations has increased sharply in
Vietnam, from 362 enterprises in 2009 to 350,000 enterprises last year.
The general department under the Ministry of Finance has signed
an agreement with four commercial banks to facilitate online tax
payments. Under the agreement, the department and the banks –Joint Stock
Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), Vietnam
Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank), Vietnam
Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) and Military
Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank) – will set up a system to transmit
online tax payments, using digital signatures for security verification.
The service will first be available to 5,000 taxpayers in areas
including Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and Nam Dinh in the north, Nghe An,
Quang Binh and Da Nang in the centre and Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Ho Chi
Minh City in the south.
Aimed at both enterprises and
individuals, it will later be expanded to all 63 cities and provinces in
the country, according to Bui Van Nam, General Director of the taxation
department.
Vice General Director of Vietinbank Nguyen Van Du
said the bank and the taxation department were working together on
preparations, holding training courses for bank staff and tax officers
and ensuring that the banks’ accounting systems were compatible with the
payment system of the taxation department.-VNA