My Dinh Stadium in the National Sports Center. (Photo: SGGP)
By June 29, the National Sports Center has paid VND47 billion to the budget, according to the conclusion of the inspection agency. Tax authorities of Hanoi have fully and seriously implemented the procedures and regulations in tax arrears management and enforcement and applied many measures to urge tax collection and tax arrears coercion. However, it raises the question of how to recover tax arrears of hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong and whether the solutions applied by the Hanoi Tax Department are effective. The worst-case scenario for National Sports Center is to auction My Dinh Stadium and the Palace of Water Sports to have money to pay off its debt.
According to lawyer Diep Nang Binh of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, the auction of My Dinh Stadium is unlikely, but it can still happen. The measures applied by the Hanoi Tax Department to collect tax debts are in accordance with the provisions of the law. In the case of the National Sports Center, the law has provisions on tax debt behavior. Accordingly, if businesses owe tax, they will be subject to administrative penalties and tax coercive measures. When the business goes bankrupt, the tax arrears are the priority payment. Criminal liability is posed when an enterprise commits tax evasion. It is also possible to find a source of money to repay the tax debt, in which the My Dinh Stadium and the Palace of Water Sports can be auctioned. For coercive measures, enterprises shall be subject to the next coercive measure when the previous ones cannot be applied or have been applied but still do not collect enough tax arrears, fines, and late payment charges according to the provisions of tax administrative decisions. Therefore, according to the regulations, the auction of these places is completely possible. However, the national stadium is the face of the country, so perhaps the tax authorities will also consult the National Assembly about this issue.
Meanwhile, lawyer Le Hang of TAT Law Firm, Hanoi Bar Association, said that "it is necessary to clarify the leader's responsibility". For specific units, such as the National Sports Center - a self-financed public non-business unit - the measures applied by the Hanoi Tax Department do not have much effect. Therefore, to collect tax, it is necessary to clearly determine the responsibility of the unit leader, who makes mistakes in management activities, causing losses to the State to handle violations thoroughly. The case needs to be handled immediately because the violations of the National Sports Center need to be verified, investigated, and clarified. If there are criminal signs, it is necessary to investigate the specific responsibility of the group or individual that has committed violations to punish them strictly. It is regrettable to close the National Sports Center for reasons unrelated to sports, and it shows the long-lasting shortcomings of management activities. Regarding the asset distraint plan, the risk of auctioning the assets of the National Sports Center is one of the solutions when there is no possibility of tax recovery.
However, this risk is unlikely because this is a public non-business unit and an administrative and non-business organization, which is difficult to apply the same mechanism as State-owned enterprises. According to current regulations, auctions for public properties of State agencies can still be conducted under the Law on Management and Use of Public Property 2017 and Decree No.151/2017/ND-CP of the Government with detailed instructions for implementation. However, due to the long-standing violations in the management of the operation of the National Sports Center, so the removal of knots must be done step by step and needs to be clarified to punish the right people for the right crimes according to the provisions of the law to recover a part of the State's lost property and not affect the work of physical training and sports.
According to lawyer Diep Nang Binh of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, the auction of My Dinh Stadium is unlikely, but it can still happen. The measures applied by the Hanoi Tax Department to collect tax debts are in accordance with the provisions of the law. In the case of the National Sports Center, the law has provisions on tax debt behavior. Accordingly, if businesses owe tax, they will be subject to administrative penalties and tax coercive measures. When the business goes bankrupt, the tax arrears are the priority payment. Criminal liability is posed when an enterprise commits tax evasion. It is also possible to find a source of money to repay the tax debt, in which the My Dinh Stadium and the Palace of Water Sports can be auctioned. For coercive measures, enterprises shall be subject to the next coercive measure when the previous ones cannot be applied or have been applied but still do not collect enough tax arrears, fines, and late payment charges according to the provisions of tax administrative decisions. Therefore, according to the regulations, the auction of these places is completely possible. However, the national stadium is the face of the country, so perhaps the tax authorities will also consult the National Assembly about this issue.
Meanwhile, lawyer Le Hang of TAT Law Firm, Hanoi Bar Association, said that "it is necessary to clarify the leader's responsibility". For specific units, such as the National Sports Center - a self-financed public non-business unit - the measures applied by the Hanoi Tax Department do not have much effect. Therefore, to collect tax, it is necessary to clearly determine the responsibility of the unit leader, who makes mistakes in management activities, causing losses to the State to handle violations thoroughly. The case needs to be handled immediately because the violations of the National Sports Center need to be verified, investigated, and clarified. If there are criminal signs, it is necessary to investigate the specific responsibility of the group or individual that has committed violations to punish them strictly. It is regrettable to close the National Sports Center for reasons unrelated to sports, and it shows the long-lasting shortcomings of management activities. Regarding the asset distraint plan, the risk of auctioning the assets of the National Sports Center is one of the solutions when there is no possibility of tax recovery.
However, this risk is unlikely because this is a public non-business unit and an administrative and non-business organization, which is difficult to apply the same mechanism as State-owned enterprises. According to current regulations, auctions for public properties of State agencies can still be conducted under the Law on Management and Use of Public Property 2017 and Decree No.151/2017/ND-CP of the Government with detailed instructions for implementation. However, due to the long-standing violations in the management of the operation of the National Sports Center, so the removal of knots must be done step by step and needs to be clarified to punish the right people for the right crimes according to the provisions of the law to recover a part of the State's lost property and not affect the work of physical training and sports.
