On the afternoon of December 21, the General Department of Customs announced that the 2023 State budget revenue estimate of the Customs sector was built on the basis of GDP growth of 6 - 6.5%, crude oil price of 70 USD/barrel; export turnover increased by 8 - 9%, import turnover increased by 7 - 8%.

However, statistics as of December 17, the total state budget revenue of the entire Customs sector is estimated at 353,033 billion VND, equal to 83.1% of the estimate, down 16% over the same period in 2022.

Explaining the reason for the decrease in revenue, Director of the Import-Export Tax Department Le Nhu Quynh said: The world economy in 2023 faces many difficulties, most economies in the world have lower growth than expected, inflation has cooled down but is still high, leading to tight monetary policy, world public debt has increased to a record, while the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, the Hamas-Israel conflict continues to be tense, geopolitical instability, food security, natural disasters, climate change... are increasing.

“Consumer shopping trends around the world have decreased sharply, the global supply chain continues to face the risk of disruption and breakage, leading to many consequences for import-export activities and economic growth,” said Ms. Le Nhu Quynh.

According to the Director of the Import-Export Tax Department, Le Nhu Quynh, major economies that are Vietnam's export partners such as the United States and the EU have reduced their purchasing targets, causing the volume of orders to decrease. In particular, the continuous fluctuations in gasoline prices are also the reason for the sharp decrease in the total taxable import-export turnover.

In addition to the above reasons, the representative of the General Department of Customs said: The main source of revenue from 4 groups of imported goods with reduced turnover has also had a strong impact on the budget revenue from import-export activities. Specifically: For the group of imported raw materials, machinery, equipment, spare parts for production such as: Coal, chemicals and chemical products, plastics, iron and steel, textile raw materials, electronic components, auto components... accounting for 57% of the total taxable import turnover, down 16.7%, reducing revenue by about 32,200 billion VND compared to the same period in 2022.

In the imported petroleum group, due to the preferential impact of the import tax rate of 5% for gasoline from the ASEAN market, and 0% for DO and FO oil, businesses mainly import from ASEAN instead of from Korea with a tax rate of 8%. Therefore, the import volume increased by 21.4% but revenue decreased by about VND 2,400 billion compared to the same period in 2022.

For the imported crude oil group, due to the 19.4% decrease in crude oil prices compared to 2022, revenue decreased by VND 2,300 billion. Particularly for the imported complete automobile group, the number of 110,771 units decreased by 26.8%, reducing revenue by about VND 4,700 billion compared to the same period in 2022.

In addition, according to Ms. Le Nhu Quynh, the implementation of Decree 44/2023/ND-CP of the Government reducing value added tax (VAT) for a number of items from July 1, 2023 is also the reason for the decrease in revenue, the VAT amount in 2023 is estimated to decrease by nearly 9,000 billion VND. In the recent Resolution No. 104/2023/QH15, the National Assembly assigned the State budget revenue estimate to the General Department of Customs in 2024 at 375,000 billion VND.

Of which, export tax is 8,200 billion VND; import tax is 47,500 billion VND; special consumption tax is 38,000 billion VND; environmental protection tax is 1,200 billion VND; VAT is 279,400 billion VND and other revenues are 700 billion VND. Meanwhile, the 2024 estimate is built on the basis of GDP growth of 6 - 6.5%; crude oil price of 70 USD/barrel.

In the face of the economic situation forecast to still face many difficulties, in order to strive to complete the assigned tasks in tax collection, in 2024, the General Department of Customs will continue to reform and simplify administrative procedures, promptly resolve arising problems under its authority related to customs procedures, tax policies, tax management, accounting regime, tax refund and tax exemption regimes, remove difficulties and create favorable conditions for enterprises to participate in import and export activities.

Continue to apply international standards and modern customs management procedures to create maximum convenience for the business community while still ensuring strict supervision and management in accordance with regulations.

Focus on reviewing and grasping the tax debt situation; classifying debt groups and tax debt status of enterprises, proposing handling measures in accordance with regulations; resolutely handling, enforcing, and recovering tax debts in accordance with the law, reducing tax arrears, periodically publicizing tax-indebted enterprises; not allowing new debts to arise, not allowing debts at December 31, 2024 to be higher than at December 31, 2023.

In addition, in 2024, the Customs sector will review and conduct checks on goods names, codes, and tax rates at the customs clearance and post-clearance stages to detect and handle cases of incorrect declaration of codes, goods names, etc. to apply low tax rates or enjoy special preferential tax rates, focusing on checking items in the list of import and export goods with risks in classification and tax rate application, checking and consulting on values ​​during customs procedures, checking post-clearance values ​​for items and businesses with risks of incorrect value declaration to correctly determine customs value and taxable value.