Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Finance has proposed extending thereduction periods of several fees beyond the current expiration date of June30.

The move aims to support virus-hit people and enterprises.

The ministry issued 21 circulars last year to reduce 29 types of fees,effective till the end of 2020, to help people and enterprises overcome thedifficulties caused by the pandemic.

Among them, some saw significant reductions, such as the enterprise registrationfee by 70 percent, corporate information dissemination fee by 67 percent andoperation licensing fee for credit institutions by 50 percent.

These reductions were reviewed and extended to June 30 this year as productionand business continued to face a lot of difficulties. These reductions wereestimated to cause a drop by about 1 trillion VND (43.1 million USD) to theState budget collection.

The ministry said that as the fourth wave of COVID-19 has hit Vietnam, it wasnecessary to extend the fee reductions to the end of this year, pointing outmany sectors were struggling, such as tourism, aviation and transportation.

The ministry estimated another drop of 1 trillion VND to State budgetcollection by extending the fee reductions to the end of this year.

The Government has introduced support packages worth a total of 62 trillion VNDto support enterprises and workers who were negatively affected by thepandemic. However, many have said that it was difficult for them to assess thesupports because some requirements were too high and impractical.

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI),said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which were the most affected bythe pandemic were struggling to access Government supports

Loc said the VCCI would submit proposals to the Government to ensure thesupport policies are accessible to SMEs with transparent procedures.

Besides support policies, administrative reforms to create a favourablebusiness environment for enterprises and measures to promote links betweendomestic and foreign-direct-investment firms should be hastened to promoteenterprises’ development, he said.

Economist Phan Duc Hieu said it was impossible to separate business and virusprevention in the current context. Hieu said the Government should be active indeveloping different scenarios and response plans as well as support packagesfollowing a group-based approach.

Support policies must ensure fairness among enterprises with transparentcriteria, Hieu stressed, adding that the support policies should also focus onenterprises that were making efforts to maintain their production and business./.