Viet Nam News HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday reauthorised private businesses after a year-long freeze, but with tighter controls than before on a segment of the economy that now makes up 13 per cent of the Communist island’s workforce. The freeze had led to jitters among would-be entrepreneurs in Cuba’s budding private sector, and Tuesday’s announcement brought some measure of relief. The official daily Granma said the new, stricter measures were necessary because of numerous breaches by private entrepreneurs, such as tax evasion, under-declaring the number of people they employed and failure to pay employer contributions. The government suspended the issuing of business licences in August 2017 for around 30 of the island’s most profitable business activities, in particular the restaurant trade, in order to review regulations. "We are not going to go backwards, nor slow down, nor allow prejudice against the non-state sector, but it is essential that people … [Read more...] about Cuba reauthorises private sector, but with tighter controls
Wages control account
Experts’ reactions to MoF tax plan mixed
Taxpayers wait for completion of tax procedures at the Hanoi Tax Department. (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Experts’ reactions to the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) tax adjustment draft have been mixed, while the business community struggles to keep up with the variety of proposed tax hikes. Most recently, the MoF’s proposal to impose auxiliary property tax rate of 0.3-0.4 percent per property value for houses worth from 700 million VND (31,000 USD) and up, was the subject of controversy. Since 2017, the MoF had repeatedly proposed amendments to current tax law towards increasing the number of tax rates. From hiking environmental protection tax on petroleum to increasing value-added tax (VAT) from 10 percent to 12 percent while reducing the number of goods entitled to 5 percent VAT, or special consumption tax on soft drinks, the MoF is intent on restructuring State budget revenue via both direct and indirect taxes. As such, it was no surprise that representatives from … [Read more...] about Experts’ reactions to MoF tax plan mixed
Backlash on MoF tax plan
Experts’ reactions to the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) tax adjustment draft have been mixed, while the business community struggles to keep up with the variety of proposed tax hikes. Most recently, the MoF’s proposal to impose auxiliary property tax rate of 0.3-0.4 per cent per property value for houses worth from VND700 million (US$31,000) and up, was the subject of controversy. Since 2017, the MoF had repeatedly proposed amendments to current tax law towards increasing the number of tax rates. From hiking environmental protection tax on petroleum to increasing value-added tax (VAT) from 10 per cent to 12 per cent while reducing the number of goods entitled to 5 per cent VAT, or special consumption tax on soft drinks, the MoF is intent on restructuring State budget revenue via both direct and indirect taxes. As such, it was no surprise that representatives from the business community and financial experts were skeptical of the ministry’s tax plans, as evident at … [Read more...] about Backlash on MoF tax plan
Party Central Committee’s 7th session concludes
Prior to the closing session, members of the committee gave opinions on three projects – the building of a contingent of senior officials, especially at strategic level with sufficient virtue, capacity and prestige on par with their assigned tasks in the new circumstance; the reform of wage policies; and the renovation of social insurance policies. They voted to adopt a resolution of the session, and three resolutions on the three projects. Addressing the closing ceremony, CPV General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong highlighted the need of developing a contingent of officials, especially strategic officials meeting the requirements of the new period. Members of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam vote to adopt a resolution of their seventh plenary session He asked for resolute and persistent direction over the implementation of eight key groups of solutions and tasks set forth at the session, focusing on ideological, moral and lifestyle … [Read more...] about Party Central Committee’s 7th session concludes
Vietnam’s economy enjoys auspicious start
A view of District 4 of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s economy enjoyed a more sustainable growth in the first quarter of the year with a strong economic expansion of 7.38 percent, the best first-quarter performance in the last decade. The growth was fairly even in three main sectors with agro-forestry-fishery increasing by 4.05 percent, industry-construction posting a 9.7 percent growth rate and services climbing 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, the processing and manufacturing sector witnessed a record growth of 13.56 percent in recent seven years. The economic restructuring is moving in a rational fashion with the agro-forestry-fishery sector accounting for a proportion of 10.34 percent in the economy while the industry-construction and services sectors making up of 35.26 percent and 43.77 percent, respectively. More than 26,700 enterprises were established during January-March, with total registered capital of nearly 278.5 trillion VND (12.25 billion … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s economy enjoys auspicious start