HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Finance is tightening tax management in the retail industry as it takes steps to force retail establishments in some sectors to generate e-invoices from cash registers.

In the first stage, the roll-out of e-invoices regenerated from cash registers would be piloted in Hà Nội, Hải Phòng and HCM City with a focus on key areas such as restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and jewellery trading.

Đặng Ngọc Minh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation, said that the percentage of retail establishments generating e-invoices from cash registers remained modest although the scheme was officially launched on December 15, 2022.

To date, 62 out of 63 provinces and cities reported the implementation plan for the first phase. Accordingly, as many as 3,943 business establishments were set to roll out e-invoices generated from cash registers by March 2023, including 1,850 businesses and 2,093 business households.

Among them, 805 have registered to use e-invoices created from cash registers and got approval from the tax authorities.

Only Bắc Kạn Province Department of Taxation had not reported the list of taxpayers who would participate in the roll-out of e-invoices from cash registers in the first stage, saying that the department encountered difficulties in persuading taxpayers to change the issuance of e-invoices as it was not compulsory.

Minh said that the current regulations still allowed retail establishments to use different forms of issuing e-invoices, thus, the percentage of establishments generating e-invoices from cash registers remained modest.

In addition, it would take time for retail establishments to upgrade the IT system to implement the issuance of e-invoices from the cash registers.

Affirming that the expansion of e-invoices generated from cash registers was a trend, not only in Việt Nam but also around the world, the Deputy Minister of Public Security said that achieving the goal was not a simple task.

He said that it was important to improve the regulations towards encouraging taxpayers to properly pay taxes. The standards for cash registers must also be put into account to ensure security, he added.

According to Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc, the Ministry of Finance targets to connect all e-invoices generated from cash registers to the tax authorities’ data system to prevent revenue losses and improve compliance.

To do this, it was necessary to create a consensus on the implementation of e-invoices generated from cash registers which would contribute to protecting the interests of consumers, he said.

Solutions must be raised to meet the demand for issuing e-invoices in large quantities and continuously, especially for e-commerce.

The focus now must be placed on upgrading the IT infrastructure, he said.

When the technical infrastructure and capacity were upgraded to meet the demand, the regulations about issuing e-invoices from cash registers must then be made compulsory together with the introduction of punishments for violations. — VNS