Taking advantage of the State’s policy on the tax payment grace period, nearly 1000 enterprises have run away, leaving hundreds of billions of dong in unpaid tax behind them. Customs agencies now must spend time and energy to track them down.
| |
In HCM City, tax evasion and tax fraud has been occurring regularly. The trick usually used is to apply for a tax grace period and import products in big quantities at the same time. After that, just before the payment deadlines (15, 30 days or nine months after customs clearance), the enterprises disappear, leaving debts worth several billion dong.
At Cat Lai port’s customs agency in HCM City, inspectors and customs officials on September 18 discovered a high number of cases like this. One typical example is Tan Hai Trieu Trade and Service Company. From November 1, 2002 to December 31, 2002, the company imported 12 consignments of car inner tubes and made 12 customs declarations under which they would have to pay nearly two billion dong in tax. However, to date, the firm has not paid.
After lengthy exertions, inspectors found the director of the company. Nguyen Van Luom, Director of Tan Hai Trieu Company, is actually a construction worker, who is illiterate and does not know anything about doing business.
Luom, who was registered as the director, explained that, in September 2002, a relative named Pham Van Thiet asked for his identification card and ho khau (permanent residential book) to set up Tan Hai Trieu Company. Thiet hired Luom to work as director and paid Luom 1.5 million dong a month.
After the company was established, Thiet kept the seal, while Luom signed documents as director. “I do not know anything about imports of machines and equipment,” Luom admitted.
Customs agencies have also found that Thong Thai Company, based in HCM City, imported six consignments on April 3, 2003 – April 30, 2003 and was charged 444 million dong in tax. It has yet to submit a single dong.
To the astonishment of inspectors, they discovered that the director of Thong Thai Company is Nguyen Van Thiet, the real owner of Tan Hai Trieu.
With the support of the police, tax inspectors met Thiet. He admitted that he was the main person running Tan Hai Trieu Company.
According to customs agencies, by December 2009, nearly 1000 enterprises had evaded taxes, totaling three trillion dong. Of this amount, 2500 billion dong is classified as irrecoverable.
The policy of delayed tax payment has allowed businesses to evade taxes. Enterprises import products in big quantities and then abandon the addresses where they registered their business. If counting taxes and fines for late payment, the two aforementioned companies alone, according to Cat Lai Customs Agency owe over four billion dong.
Nguyen Van Han, a senior official from Cat Lai Customs Agency, reported that the agency sent documents to Tan Hai Trieu and Thong Thai Companies many times, asking for them to pay tax, but they have not received a reply. The customs agency has put their tax codes onto a ‘black list’, but they cannot find out if the tax evaders are the real owners of other companies.
According to Nguyen Thi Hoa, Director of Cat Lai Customs Agency, the lack of regulations allowing heavy fines for violators and their shortage of staff prevent customs agencies from efficiently deterring tax evasion.