The Minister of Finance made the statement at a regular government press conference about the socio-economic situation in May 2024 and the first 5 months of the year on Saturday.

At the press conference, reporters questioned what the Government will do to support businesses when more and more enterprises are seen to participate in the market.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that enterprise development has a positive trend. He revealed that in the first five months, roughly 98,800 new enterprises registered to establish and started to operate, an increase of 4.1 percent over the same period last year, higher than the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market (97,300 enterprises). The number of new establishments was higher but not significantly higher, showing that business operations still face many difficulties.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment still keeps its close monitoring to report to the Government and Prime Minister.

The Deputy Minister also said that accessing credit capital is still difficult. He revealed that by the end of May, credit growth only reached 2.41 percent while bad debt tends to increase. The number of businesses withdrawing from the market is still high as businesses are still facing bottlenecks.

The government has emphasized solutions including simplified administrative procedures, and continued monetary policies in combination with reasonable fiscal policies. Related sides have been asked to create favorable conditions for businesses and people to access credit capital for better production and business in priority areas.

The country strives for about 5 percent and approximately 15 percent credit growth in the first 6 months of the year and the whole year respectively. Commercial banks should continue to reduce lending interest rates by 1-2 percent.

Additionally, the government will continue to exempt and reduce taxes, fees, charges, and land use fees to remove difficulties for production and business activities and market expansion.

Regarding tax collection for live online sales worth up to hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that livestreaming online sales generates revenue and can generate income; therefore, sellers must pay tax according to the present tax regulations and under supervision by tax authorities.

E-commerce platforms in general and livestreams in particular are currently managed according to two taxes. Individuals who generate revenue and income are those who must pay personal income tax. A family business selling goods with revenue will pay taxes for the business household.

Online livestreams are business activities with revenue and income, so sellers who make livestreams on the online marketplace must pay tax, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi affirmed.

The Deputy Minister also provided more information about the results of tax supervision for e-commerce business activities in the past two years, including livestream sales activities. While reviewing sanctions for over 31,500 businesses, business households, and individuals from 2021 to 2023, tax-related agencies have thrown the book at 22,000 cases and collected additional tax of nearly VND3,000 billion.

Sai Gon Giai Phong