A tax official is providing instructions to a taxpayer. As the pandemic is developing complicatedly, further supports are needed to aid enterprises and people to overcome the difficult time. — Photo laodong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Finance has proposed extending the reduction periods of several fees beyond the current expiration date of June 30.

The move aims to support virus-hit people and enterprises.

The ministry issued 21 circulars last year to reduce 29 types of fees, effective till the end of 2020, to help people and enterprises overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

Among them, some saw significant reductions, such as the enterprise registration fee by 70 per cent, corporate information dissemination fee by 67 per cent and operation licensing fee for credit institutions by 50 per cent.

These reductions were reviewed and extended to June 30 this year as production and business continued to face a lot of difficulties. These reductions were estimated to cause a drop by about VNĐ1 trillion (US$43.1 million) to the State budget collection.

The ministry said that as the fourth wave of COVID-19 has hit Việt Nam, it was necessary to extend the fee reductions to the end of this year, pointing out many sectors were struggling, such as tourism, aviation and transportation.

The ministry estimated another drop of VNĐ1 trillion to State budget collection by extending the fee reductions to the end of this year.

Support package must be practical

The Government has introduced support packages worth a total of VNĐ62 trillion to support enterprises and workers who were negatively affected by the pandemic. However, many have said that it was difficult for them to assess the supports because some requirements were too high and impractical.

Vũ Tiến Lộc, Chairman of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which were the most affected by the pandemic were struggling to access Government supports

Lộc said the VCCI would submit proposals to the Government to ensure the support policies are accessible to SMEs with transparent procedures.

Besides support policies, administrative reforms to create a favourable business environment for enterprises and measures to promote links between domestic and foreign-direct-investment firms should be hastened to promote enterprises’ development, he said.

Economist Phan Đức Hiếu said it was impossible to separate business and virus prevention in the current context. Hiếu said the Government should be active in developing different scenarios and response plans as well as support packages following a group-based approach.

Support policies must ensure fairness among enterprises with transparent criteria, Hiếu stressed, adding that the support policies should also focus on enterprises that were making efforts to maintain their production and business. — VNS