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| Consider to temporarily suspend business operations and revoke licenses and certificates of eligibility for petroleum trading for petroleum retail stores and businesses that do not comply with regulations. Photo: ST |
Tax sector issues urgent requests
According to the General Department of Taxation, as of February 26, 2024, nationwide there were 7,542 petroleum retail stores issuing e-invoices for each sale (increasing 5,849 stores compared to with the date December 1, 2023). Many localities have achieved high results with a e-invoice issuance rate of 100% or over 80% of petroleum retail stores issuing e-invoices for each sale such as: Bac Ninh 100%, Dak Lak 97%, Thanh Hoa 95%, Yen Bai 91%, Nam Dinh 89%, Hanoi 88%, Hai Duong 88%, Ba Ria – Vung Tau 83%, Quang Nam 82%, Vinh Phuc 81%. However, there are localities achieving a rate below 55%.
The reason for this comes from, on the one hand, the awareness of buyers who do not attach importance to getting e-invoices upon completion of each sale; On the other hand, many small petroleum businesses and stores are still afraid to implement this regulation due to the investment costs in in infrastructure and equipment such as connection software and data calculation devices…
Sharing about the difficulties and problems in this issue, Mr. Le Thanh Dung, General Director of M-invoice Investment Co., Ltd. said that the issue of infrastructure and equipment (pumps) of the petroleum business units is currently the most difficult to evaluate in the process of implementing e-invoices on every sale. Most devices do not meet the requirements to integrate with the e-invoice system or sales management software system, leading to no database to check the implementation of e-invoice issuance after each sale of businesses. Mr. Le Thanh Dung added that not only petroleum businesses are facing difficulties, but also e-invoice solution providers are also facing many problems in testing and approving samples.
In addition to objective reasons, according to assessments, many businesses and petroleum retailers are not fully aware of the mandatory legal obligations when preparing e-invoices for each sale according to the provisions of the Law on Tax administration, Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP and Decree 80/2023/ND-CP.
To overcome this situation, following the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Taxation has issued many written requests to local tax departments to urgently strengthen management, inspection, supervision and acceleration of the issuance of e-invoices on every sale of petroleum retail activities. Notably, the tax sector has requested local tax departments to assign specific targets and tasks to each unit and civil servant; proactively establish inspection teams or advise the People’s Committees of provinces and cities to establish interdisciplinary inspection teams to carry out inspections at petroleum retail stores.
In particular, the tax has requested local tax departments, based on the actual situation in the locality, to proactively advise the Provincial People’s Committee to direct authorities to consider to temporarily suspend business operations and revoke licenses and certificates of eligibility for petroleum trading for petroleum retail stores and businesses that do not comply with regulations until March 31, 2024.
Solutions must be practical, substantive and effective
Implementing the direction of the General Department of Taxation, many localities have established interdisciplinary inspection teams to deploy e-invoices on every sale in the petroleum business. For example, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has just directed the establishment of an interdisciplinary inspection team to deploy e-invoices for each sale and strengthen the management, inspection, and supervision of the issuance of e-invoices for each sale, connect with tax authorities, strict handle cases of non-implementation or intentional non-implementation.
Previously, Hoa Binh Tax Department advised the Provincial People’s Committee to establish a team to deploy the management and use of e-invoices for petroleum retail in the province. Through reported data, by the end of March 7, 147/182 petrol stores had issued e-invoices on every sale, reaching 80.8%. For 35 stores that have not yet implemented, the team made a record of commitment to implement the roadmap and deadline.
In Phu Tho, from the end of December 2023, the Provincial Tax Department has deployed e-invoices after each sale to petroleum traders in the province. The Tax Department has issued a document directing affiliated units to ensure that by the end of April 30, 2024, 70% and by the end of June 30, 2024, 100% of petroleum businesses issuing e-invoices for each sale…
Mr. Le Thanh Dung proposed that the tax authority should issue minimum applicable standards for the issuance of e-invoices for each sale, choose the form of e-invoices initiated from cash registers to apply to petroleum retailers, limiting violations in invoices; the process of issuing invoices without signing and the data transmission with the General Department of Taxation in batches of invoices will also greatly reduce the load on the systems, benefiting solution providers, transmission organizations and the General Department of Taxation in tax administration.
To overcome problems during implementation, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation Phi Van Tuan requested local tax departments to strengthen coordination with provincial People’s Committees, especially for localities which have not achieved high results of implementation of e-invoices to share experiences, and report on what has been and is being implemented to find reasons and offer appropriate solutions. Mr. Phi Van Tuan also emphasized that the solutions must be practical, substantive and effective, including concretizing the implementation plan, assigning specific tasks to each civil servant of each unit. Issues within the scope of the tax sector regarding invoices will be solved by the tax sector; and issues of ceasing operations and revoking business licenses within the scope of other sectors will be reported to Provincial People’s Committee for guidance.