Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc askedthe financial sector to stay updated with the development of Industry 4.0 so asto expand the tax base.

He attended the sector’s teleconference onJanuary 8 with the 63 provinces and cities. The event aimed to review thesector’s performance in 2017 and set tasks for this year.

A report at the event read that by the end ofDecember 31, 2017, total state budget balancing revenues are estimated at morethan 1.283 quadrillion VND (56.3 billion USD), about 71 trillion VND (3.1billion USD) or 5.9 percent higher than the estimates.

Nearly 624,000 or 100 percent of businesses hadused online tax declaration services while almost 98 percent of them hadregistered e-tax payment by the end of last year.

Addressing the meeting, PM Phuc recognised thefinancial sector’s efforts while also pointing out its shortcomings.

He said financial policies, especially tax policies,have changed too fast and too much, affecting people and businesses. Suchvagaries show that the making of policies has yet to keep up with thesocio-economic life. 

He said tax policies in particular and financialpolicies in general must keep pace with the country’s changes and be stable fora fairly long term, about five to ten years.

The Government leader pointed out a fact thatfocus is still on raising tax rates instead of expanding the tax base to ensureState budget collection.

It is necessary to stay updated with thedevelopment of Industry 4.0, which is happening in various economic sectorslike e-commerce, online services and online games, he stressed, consideringthem as “gold mines” to expand the tax base. Meanwhile, the financial sector isstill struggling with the management and exploitation of these taxationsources.

PM Phuc asked the sector to align existing taxpolicies with OECD and United Nations standards. He also called for its staff’sbetter sense of responsibility towards the society, people and businesses so asto eradicate lubrication payments in the sector.-VNA