HANOI: The tax authorities conducted investigations and checks at more than 70,000 businesses, reducing losses of around VND20 trillion ($889 million) in 2015.
The Ministry of Finance said the investigations focussed on industries such as those in petroleum, gas, mineral exploration, and real estate trading, in addition to projects transfer, e-commerce and healthcare equipment, which could be involved in tax evasion and fraud. Beside, the checks also concentrated on enterprises which have enjoyed tax preferential, foreign invested firms in Viet Nam and those with signs of transfer pricing.
The tax authorities especially paid attention to refund of value-added tax for big amounts as well as tax evasion and fraud. In addition, the tax agencies also investigated organisations and individuals whose transactions seemed suspicious.
The investigations and checks helped the industry recover VND31 trillion ($1.4 billion), thus contributing VND7 trillion to the State budget, the ministry said.
In 2015, the authorities also implemented checks in 1.22 million tax declaration documents, reducing losses of VND274 billion and contributing VND303 billion to the State budget. It had 2,058 internal check-ups to discover tax violations of VND127 billion.