MOF is currently seeking comments on a draft decree to amend and supplement Article 9 of Decree No123 regarding invoices and documents, which was previously amended by the Government's Decree No70/2025.

The draft adds regulations for issuing summary invoices to non-business individual customers to suit the specific operational characteristics of industries with high transaction frequencies. These include banking, securities, insurance, e-wallet money transfers, power disconnection and reconnection services by electricity distributors, parking services, cinema activities, and e-commerce services (including e-commerce and postal activities or direct shipping for e-commerce platforms). 

It also applies to public passenger transport by bus and taxi services that use billing software in accordance with the Law on Roads, provided they contain full trip information.

Nguyen Quang Huy from the Faculty of Finance and Banking of Nguyen Trai University argued that the proposal to allow summary invoices for non-business individuals in high-frequency sectors is not just a legal-technical adjustment, but represents a strategic leap in financial and tax management thinking linked to national digital transformation.

Huy noted that Vietnam's economy is shifting rapidly toward a service economy, digital economy, and electronic payments, where the value of each transaction may be small, but the volume of transactions is massive and continuous.

In this context, the traditional management model of "one transaction - one invoice" has revealed limitations such as rapidly rising compliance costs and pressure on the technological infrastructure of both businesses and regulatory agencies, while monitoring efficiency is not proportional to the resources spent.

The proposal to allow daily or monthly summary invoices, based on detailed data from the internal management systems of service providers, reflects a change in management methodology.

“From a public finance perspective, this is not a 'loosening' of tax discipline, but a restructuring of control methods. The responsibility of businesses shifts from issuing mass individual invoices to ensuring the accuracy, completeness, and traceability of transaction data. When necessary, state agencies can request detailed summary tables, thereby still ensuring transparency and the capability for inspections and audits,” Huy said.

This approach aligns with international trends, where many countries have transitioned to tax management based on structured transaction data, allowing for smarter analysis, cross-checking, and risk assessment.

Positive impact on businesses, the financial system

Huy said that the amendment helps significantly reduce compliance costs by saving technological resources, personnel, and operating costs for businesses, especially financial institutions and digital service providers.

More importantly, it allows businesses to focus resources on core activities and innovation, rather than being caught up in administrative procedures.

“Reducing the volume of individual invoices also contributes to enhancing the stability and safety of IT infrastructure for both businesses and state management agencies, particularly in the context of growing big data and increasing processing requirements,” he said.

However, the draft still maintains an important principle: when a customer requests it, the service provider must issue and provide an individual invoice for each transaction. This, according to Huy, demonstrates a balance between administrative reform and protecting the legitimate rights of citizens, preventing digitalization from becoming a barrier to information access.

This flexibility makes the policy both feasible and capable of creating social consensus, a key factor for reforms to take root in life.

“In a long-term vision, summary invoice regulations serve more than just immediate goals. They pave the way for deeper applications of big data analytics and artificial intelligence in tax and public finance management. Once data is standardized, connected, and exploited effectively, the State can improve the quality of policy planning, while businesses gain more tools to optimize operations,” Huy emphasized.

Nguyen Le