Four-month State budget revenue drops as Gov’t offers tax relief 03:05              The State budget revenue in January – April was estimated to total 491.38 trillion VND (21.05 billion USD), representing a drop of 5.9 percent against the same period last year, as the Government offered tax relief to support those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Finance.  Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The State budget revenue in January – April was estimated to total 491.38 trillion VND (21.05 billion USD), representing a drop of 5.9 percent against the same period last year, as the Government offered tax relief to support those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Finance. In April, domestic collection to the State budget decreased by nearly 25 percent over March to 72.5 trillion VND, equivalent to just 65 percent of the figure of the same period last year. The General Department of Taxation asked local tax departments to hasten the effort of implementing the Government’s Decree No 41/2020/ND-CP dated April 8 about extension of deadlines for tax and land use fee payments. Statistics showed that the General Department of Taxation has received more than 90,000 applications for postponement of tax and land use fee payments, worth totally 26.2 trillion VND. State budget revenue from crude oil in April was estimated at 2.5 trillion VND, 2.9 trillion VND lower than March as crude oil prices plunged. In the four-month period, collection from crude oil totalled 18.3 trillion VND, or 52.1 percent of the plan and up 0.9 percent over the same period last year. Crude oil prices averaged 58 USD per barrel in January – April, 2 USD lower than the price estimated in the State budget collection plan. Revenue from imports and exports in April was estimated at 13.9 trillion VND, 5.8 trillion VND lower than the previous month. The total in the four-month period was 63.9 trillion VND, a fall of 19 percent against the same period last year, due to the impact of the virus which caused trade to collapse. According to the ministry, the State budget revenue this year might see a drop of 150 trillion VND due to the impact of the virus, or even bigger if the country’s gross domestic product growth rate was below 5 percent as per the forecasts of some international organisations. The drop in revenue would mainly be attributed to the fallout of sectors heavily affected by COVID-19, like services, tourism, trade and logistics. The ministry estimated that budget deficit might widen by 1.5-1.6 percent of GDP to 5-5.1 percent GDP this year. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the General Department of Taxation, said that focus would be placed on hastening reforms to create favourable conditions for taxpayers and improve the business climate which would promote production and business. Inspection would be enhanced to prevent tax evasion, Minh said. In addition, the management on e-commerce would be improved to increase tax collection./. VNA