Will apply electronic identification of online sellers to prevent tax loss

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien answers questions from National Assembly deputies. (Photo: LINH NGUYEN)

Continuing the question-and-answer session at the 7th Session, on the afternoon of June 4, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien answered questions from National Assembly deputies on issues related to e-commerce development, removing difficulties for businesses, developing supporting industries, mechanical industries, etc.

Many concerns about the field of e-commerce

Questioning the commander of the Industry and Trade sector, delegate Nguyen Minh Hoang (Ho Chi Minh City delegation) said that e-commerce is promoting the country's digital economy. However, recently, e-commerce activities have been exploited by subjects to trade in counterfeit goods, banned goods, goods of unknown origin, and to take advantage of e-commerce to commit fraud and appropriate property.

Violations are increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable in both scale and area of operation, especially in large cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. In particular, e-commerce activities on social networks are currently very complicated.

The delegates requested the Minister to inform them about the solutions that the Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to implement to limit and prevent the activities and violations of this group of subjects in order to develop healthy e-commerce and protect the rights of consumers.

At the same time, delegates also raised the issue of how tax collection for e-commerce on social networks will be implemented in the coming time.

Delegate Duong Minh Anh (Hanoi delegation) raised questions to the Minister of Industry and Trade. (Photo: LINH NGUYEN)

Sharing the same concern, delegate Duong Minh Anh (Hanoi delegation) questioned the issue of ensuring the safety of consumers' personal information, as well as solutions to prevent and handle cases of personal data violations and commercial fraud when making online payments.

Regarding the Ministry of Industry and Trade's current publicization of a list of websites that have been reported to have signs of violating the law on the e-commerce information portal, delegate Mai Khanh (Ninh Binh delegation) raised the issue of whether this publicization unintentionally supports unfair competition and what mechanism the Ministry is implementing to verify the information before making it public.

Strengthening control over origin to avoid counterfeit goods imported through the electronic environment

Responding to questions from delegates, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien acknowledged the delegates' reflections on the situation of counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods penetrating the market through e-commerce, affecting consumers and unfairly competing with domestic manufacturing enterprises.

Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has regularly recommended that domestic producers focus on improving product quality to be competitive with imported goods; at the same time, promote the campaign "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods", especially in the e-commerce environment.

In addition, the Ministry submitted to competent authorities to promulgate the Law on Consumer Rights Protection in 2023 and the Decree guiding the implementation of the Project on anti-counterfeiting, protection of consumer rights in e-commerce and deploy a 24/7 online mechanism to receive feedback from consumers nationwide.

“In 2023 alone, this portal removed more than 18,000 products and blocked more than 5,000 stalls that violated current legal regulations,” the Minister informed.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien answers questions from National Assembly deputies. (Photo: LINH NGUYEN)

Along with strengthening inspection and strict control of origin to avoid counterfeit and poor quality goods, in the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to proactively coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to advise the Government to consider and issue a Decree on customs management of import and export activities via e-commerce. Accordingly, it will try to separate regular goods from e-commerce goods to strengthen the management of foreign sellers through this channel.

At the same time, strengthen strict control over origin to avoid counterfeit and poor quality goods imported through the electronic environment.

“In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also advised the Government to consider abolishing the regulation on exemption of value-added tax on imported goods of small value to avoid the situation of importing via e-commerce, competing with domestic goods without being taxed as at present,” said Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, citing the current regulation that does not impose value-added tax or import tax on goods with a value of less than one million VND.

Tax loss in e-commerce sector

According to the Minister of Industry and Trade, recently, e-commerce has transacted a huge amount, with sales reaching nearly 21 billion USD. Tax payments in this field in 2023 are estimated to be nearly 100 trillion VND, an increase of 16.1% compared to 2022. However, it is undeniable that there are still tax losses in this field.

“Through monitoring, there are 4 large foreign floors operating in Vietnam, importing about 1 billion USD worth of goods each month. That means there will be a loss of tax here if current regulations are not adjusted,” said Mr. Nguyen Hong Dien.

However, according to current regulations, the Ministry of Finance is the agency in charge of tax management. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has actively coordinated with the tax sector and the Ministry of Finance to share data from more than 900 websites and nearly 300 applications and e-commerce trading floors to review and strengthen tax management in e-commerce.

“In the coming time, the Ministry will continue to complete the shared database on e-commerce, sharing it with relevant ministries and branches to serve tax and customs management,” the commander of the Industry and Trade sector emphasized.

Along with that, urgently complete the system connection between the functional agencies of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the General Department of Taxation to exchange data of e-commerce application websites, sales websites and application websites providing e-commerce services in June 2024.

At the same time, strengthen coordination with the Ministry of Public Security in implementing the application of electronic identification for sellers on e-commerce trading floors to enhance management efficiency and prevent tax losses; actively coordinate with the General Department of Taxation to inspect, examine, and handle violations with enterprises, business households, and individuals operating e-commerce without declaring and paying taxes.

Scene of the questioning session on the afternoon of June 4. (Photo: LINH NGUYEN)

The Personal Data Protection Law will have regulations on the field of e-commerce.

Regarding the delegate's question about personal data security in e-commerce activities, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said that there is a situation of personal data being leaked, bought, sold, and appropriated on the internet, although it is not common.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has clearly identified this issue and has researched and advised the Government to submit to the National Assembly the Law on Consumer Rights Protection 2023 and Decree 55 to guide the implementation of the law.

In particular, there is an additional task for organizations and individuals in protecting consumer information such as: Must develop rules for protecting information, ensuring safety and security of consumers. This law takes effect from July 1st this year and is expected to contribute to overcoming the above situation.

In the coming time, to overcome this situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches, especially the Ministry of Public Security, in developing the Law on Personal Data Protection, ensuring comprehensive legal regulations in all fields, including the field of e-commerce.

At the same time, promote communication about new legal regulations on guiding Decrees; require business organizations and individuals to comply with the development of information protection rules and require e-commerce trading floors to publicly disclose policies on protecting consumers' personal information.

According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Dien, e-commerce is a modern and convenient business model, but due to the characteristics of the network environment, in order to strengthen management, guidance and support for consumers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has publicly announced a list of e-commerce websites that have been reported to have signs of violating the law.

The Ministry has implemented a very strict process of receiving and disclosing information according to a number of requirements: only disclosing websites with more than 5 comments along with full information about the person who reported; requiring the websites that are reported to explain, and only after verifying the content of the comments will the list of violations be publicly disclosed on the portal. This will minimize the possibility of competitors taking advantage to defame each other.

“In the coming time, the Ministry will continue to implement solutions such as operating and upgrading the e-commerce management portal, and promoting the handling of online consumer complaints. At the same time, it will strengthen inspection, examination, and strict handling of violations to minimize unhealthy behaviors in the e-commerce environment,” the Minister of Industry and Trade emphasized.

Along with that, promote propaganda, guide businesses to comply with the law; provide information to guide consumers to improve their transaction skills in the e-commerce environment; strengthen communication to society, especially consumers must be smart consumers to avoid fraud in e-commerce.

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