The Ministry of Finance has pledged to find appropriate measures to back all the enterprises which fell victim to the wrong tax debt information posted on its website last month.

Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan told a press conference last Friday that if those enterprises could prove the tax debt information led them to lose new contracts, tax authorities would have proper solutions to assist them.

The ministry has sent apologies to six out of 600 enterprises listed as tax debtors over inaccurate information about their tax obligations.

As explained by Tuan, the six firms are among the eight that told the ministry about the false information about their tax obligations. Late updates of enterprises’ tax payments were to blame for the inaccurate information. 

Tuan said before 2012, the National Assembly and the Government approved tax payment delays and cuts to help enterprises weather the economic slowdown. However, though the economy has improved since 2013, enterprises have still cited economic difficulties as reasons to postpone their tax payments.

Tuan said enterprises with late tax payments were publicized as tax arrears have increased dramatically. This is unfair for those enterprises which have fulfilled their tax obligations.

Tax arrears now stay at around VND74 trillion, equivalent to 10% of the total tax amount enterprises must pay in the year. But Tuan acknowledged that the wrong tax debt information is a big lesson for tax agencies.

The ministry will tell tax authorities to publicize tax debtors regularly from the coming quarter though Tuan said State budget collections are forecast to exceed the year’s target.

Earlier, the General Department of Taxation removed at least 26 enterprises from the list of tax debtors and updated tax payments of two firms. The Ministry of Finance took away the list of 600 slow taxpayers from its website after outcries from many enterprises.

The department said local tax agencies would review the list of tax debtors and make adjustments when they find something wrong.       

Local tax agencies attributed the inaccurate information to glitches of the tax management system.