VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of businesses which cannot declare bankruptcy, have become the “zombies” which operate under disguised marks, cheat partners and evade tax.

The reports of taxation bodies show that a lot of businesses have “vanished into the air” with their unpaid taxes, which have caused loss in revenue to the state budget.

Some local taxation bodies complain that they businesses in their localities have evaded hundreds of billions of dong in tax, while the taxation bodies still cannot track down the businesses to demand debt payment.

According to Deputy Director of the Hai Phong City’s Customs Agency -- Tran Van Hoi, in terms of the import-export tax alone, 14 businesses have been found as evading tax or having escaped from their registered local addresses, leaving the unpaid tax of VND94.5 billion.

The “zombies” include the businessmen and the owners of the businesses who are in temporary detention or who have been in jail for the last many years. Since the debts – businesses have become ownerless. It’s still unclear when the debts would be settled.

The Viet Phap Technology Development Company at No. 19 Nguyen Van Cu Street in Hanoi, is a typical example.

The company has the unpaid sum of tax worth VND2.97 billion which it has owed since 2002.

After many times of failing to collect debts from the company, the taxation body got exceedingly astonished when realizing that the company has no more existed in the locality since 2005. After the company’s Director Nguyen Phu Khang was arrested by the investigation body, the company has left from the given address.

Sunlan Vietnam which has the registered address in My Van district of Hung Yen province has also been named in the list of the enterprises which owe import-export tax worth VND3.11 billion which it should have to pay in 1009-2000. The company’s director -- Ho Chen Cho, and the head office of the company have disappeared.

In the northern province of Lang Son, the Mong Phong Company has reportedly left the locality, which makes it impossible for the competent agencies to collect the import and VAT tax of up to VND1.7 billion.

The Binh Phuoc provincial Customs Agency’s Head -- Vo Tri Tam, said he has got a headache with Dae Hee SJ Company which has been owing VND1.6 billion in tax.

The company, which met big difficulties, informed to the competent agencies that it has suspended the operation since 2009. Later, when trying to force the company to pay tax debts, the competent agencies realized that it was still owing VND12.3 billion to commercial banks.

Tam said that it’s very difficult to deal with the case. Since the company has become ownerless, it’s impossible to follow the formalities to declare the bankruptcy for the enterprises.

An officer of the Hanoi Taxation Agency has confirmed that a lot of businesses have run away to avoid the big sums of tax they have to pay. In fact, the phenomenon has been seen over the last 10 years already, but no proper solution has been found to settle the problem

“The State Audit every year finds tens of thousands of billions of dong worth of unpaid tax. Meanwhile, taxation bodies cannot do anything more to settle the problems,” he said.

A report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that 31,000 businesses have registered their operation since the beginning of the year.

Tien Phong