The draft Decree on electronic invoices and electronic documents is being finalized by the Ministry of Finance with a view to significantly reducing administrative procedures. At a recent workshop organized by the Tax Department in collaboration with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), many opinions from businesses and experts proposed removing the "bottlenecks" in regulations on issuing electronic invoices.
The proposals focus on simplifying processes, reducing compliance costs, and increasing flexibility in implementation, thereby contributing to more effective policy implementation.
One of the issues of particular interest to the business community is the regulation regarding the timing of invoicing for specific services that occur frequently and continuously and require time for data reconciliation.
Feedback from businesses and associations focuses on flexible processes that are tailored to business practices.
According to the Vietnam Maritime Pilots Association, each time a ship docks, departs, or leaves a port, a separate invoice must be issued. This means that a single ship could generate multiple invoices in a single day, placing a significant procedural burden on businesses.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam Maritime Pilots Association, stated: "It is very difficult for pilotage companies to issue invoices 5-6 times for a small vessel. For domestic vessels, the fee is 2 million VND, but each invoice is only 500,000 VND. Having to issue invoices 5-6 times for each vessel is very inconvenient."
"Regarding tourism, if a foreigner has to provide information about their passport number, nationality, or entry documents just to buy a bottle of water, it's not only difficult for tourists, but also for retailers and businesses," said Ms. Nguyen Viet Ha, Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham).
Therefore, many have suggested that, with bank payment transactions having complete data, the need to invoice each transaction should be reduced. For household businesses, a single consolidated invoice could be issued at the end of the day. A representative from the Tax Department stated that they will consider this suggestion for further study.
Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the Tax Department, said: "At least for transfers via QR code scanning, they have already notified that Ms. Nguyen Thi A has paid 60,000 VND, and that's it. From there, the software can extract a total invoice that is also very detailed. I think this can be adopted."
The regulations on issuing electronic invoices on e-commerce platforms have also received much attention. A representative from the Tax Department stated that the draft proposal suggests that, in addition to deducting and paying taxes on behalf of businesses, e-commerce platforms can issue electronic invoices to individual business owners.
"For business households with revenue exceeding 1 billion VND, issuing invoices is a difficult issue. Therefore, we also hope to propose in the draft that the e-commerce platform will issue invoices on behalf of business households on the platform," suggested Ms. Ngo Thi Thuy Linh, Deputy Head of the E-commerce Sub-Department, Tax Department, Ministry of Finance.
Many opinions expressed at the workshop were incorporated by the drafting committee, with the goal of not only simplifying procedures and reducing costs for businesses and citizens, but also aiming to reduce the time and cost of administrative procedures by at least 30% as required by Resolution 68 of the Politburo.
