VietNamNet Bridge - The Quang Nam provincial authorities have suggested allowing Viet A Bank to take over one of two gold mining companies belonging to Besra Group which owe large sums to the local taxation agency.

On June 2, 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh said he was waiting for information from the Quang Nam provincial authorities about tax collection from Bong Mieu and Phuoc Son, the two gold mining companies.

The two companies were reported owing VND354 billion in tax to the Quang Nam taxation agency.

Three months ago, the government released a document requesting the provincial taxation agency to collect unpaid taxes from the two companies and apply coercive measures if necessary.

Le Phuoc Thanh, when asked about the tax collection, admitted that the tax still could not be collected despite a series of drastic measures.

Meanwhile, Chair of Quang Nam province Dinh Van Thu confirmed the failure to collect tax from the Canadian Group. 

Thu also said the local authorities had not reported about the failure because they wanted to give the two businesses the opportunities to sell their stakes for restructuring.

Viet A bank, according to Thu, has expressed its willingness to buy shares of one of the two gold mining companies. 

The Quang Ninh provincial authorities support the deal and allow the businesses to change hands. The buyer will inherit the duties of paying tax debts and take the responsibility of paying tax to the provincial tax agency.

However, economists oppose the proposal.

Bui Ngoc Son, a renowned analyst, said the share transfer and takeover of businesses is purely a commercial transaction, which has no relation to tax collections.

“It is the businesses’ job to negotiate the debt trading and share transfer. Meanwhile, it is the local taxation agency’s task to collect debts from taxpayers,” he said.

He emphasized that the local authorities must be sure they can collect the VND354 billion worth of tax from the tax debtors before they allow the companies to conduct transactions.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a renowned economist, commented that this is “quite abnormal” for local authorities not to be able to collect tax from enterprises.

“The local authorities have legal instruments that can support them to ensure enforcement of the law,” he said, adding that it is necessary to conduct a probe to find out if there is anyone intervened in the case.

Hieu, while commenting that buying and selling businesses is a commonly used method to deal with bad debts, said that local authorities must know who will pay the debts before agreeing to business transfer transactions.

Dat Viet