HANOI: Of all the country’s 1,000 top taxpayers in 2014, 460 businesses were in the foreign direct investment sector, according to an annual survey released by Hanoi-based Vietnam Report on Tuesday.
The FDI sector accounted for 37 percent of tax revenues, compared to a 45 percent share of 229 state-owned enterprises in the list. The private sector came third. The combined tax payments increased 2.34 percent last year to more than VND82.34 trillion (US$3.64 billion). That was equivalent to 10 percent of state revenue in 2014.
More than 60 percent of the payments came from the top 10, which included three foreign companies Honda Vietnam, Samsung Electronics, and Unilever Vietnam. Honda was the only foreign name in last year’s top 10. Military-run telecom giant Viettel topped the list for the second year.
Information technology was the biggest taxpaying industry, with 46 companies accounting for 18 percent of the top 1,000’s total payments. Vietnam Report also asked for the listed businesses’ opinion on local tax regulations and found that 87 percent of the respondents wanted revisions and less red tape.
Many FDI and private-owned businesses expressed hope to take part in the drafting and revision of legal documents related to tax, it said. Around half of the respondents said the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would have positive impacts on business, while 9 percent said the impacts would be negative.
