On the afternoon of December 9, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Value Added Tax (VAT).
Participating in giving comments in the hall, delegate Tran Hoang Ngan (HCMC delegation) stated that recently, businesses have encountered many difficulties related to VAT refund conditions. Currently, the Law stipulates 3 conditions, in which the third condition requires: the seller must declare and pay VAT on the issued invoice to the business establishment to request a tax refund.
However, this is a factor that buyers cannot know and cannot control. Therefore, businesses are constantly in a situation of having to wait, wonder, go to the tax office to ask "When will they be refunded" and get caught up in this condition.
Therefore, the delegate supports the removal of Point c, Clause 9, Article 15 on tax refund conditions, in order to remove obstacles and create more favorable conditions for businesses in the tax refund process.
Discussing in the hall, delegate Tran Van Lam (Bac Ninh delegation) said that this amendment proposal has correctly resolved the bottlenecks that people and businesses are looking forward to, from simplifying procedures to combating tax fraud.
However, delegate Lam also pointed out the inconsistency in tax policies between the two important topics of agriculture, which are animal feed and fertilizers.
While proposed feed is not subject to tax but is still subject to input deduction, fertilizers were once decided to be subject to a 5% tax to achieve the same goal, causing concerns about increased costs for farmers.
From this reality, the delegate recommended that there should be fairness in tax behavior to provide maximum support for agricultural workers.
"I suggest that the National Assembly and the Government, along with adjusting the VAT policy this time, need to consider and thoroughly resolve the above shortcoming, which is to transfer fertilizer back to the non-VAT subject" - delegate Lam said.
Participating in the discussion, delegate Ta Van Ha - Vice Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society - supported the view that it is necessary to review the tax rate on fertilizers.
This delegate re-examined the argument that increasing taxes to reduce selling prices is unconvincing, because VAT is essentially a hit on end consumers. He said that "no product will increase taxes to reduce prices".
Expressing concern for several thousand workers in the fertilizer industry, according to delegate Ta Van Ha, "if we continue to increase taxes like that, it will directly affect the rice of 100 million people".
"Workers save every penny of salary, now the tax is on products, on vegetables, on food, how do they know how to handle it? The question is where will that 5% tax go? It goes straight to the people's meals, especially workers and laborers with small salaries" - delegate Ta Van Ha emphasized.
At the end of the discussion session, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang acknowledged the comments of National Assembly deputies on VAT on fertilizer products.
Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that the Ministry will continue to research, review and report to competent authorities for consideration and handling.
