Realizing the Government's directions related to digital transformation, towards the goal of building digital government, digital economy, digital society and digital citizen, and improving the state agencies operational efficiency as well as the service quality to people and business, the Ministry of Finance has, over the years, actively implemented IT applications, drastically implemented digital transformation and considered it an important breakthrough to modernize the Financial sector, especially in key areas such as taxation, customs, state treasury, securities...
Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, Deputy Director, Department of Financial Informatics and Statistics. Photo: QM.
MOF keeps first ranking in digital transformation for 2 consecutive years
The active participation in digital transformation has helped the Ministry of Finance improve the quality and efficiency of national financial and budgetary management, reform administrative procedures, reduce costs, facilitate people and businesses. … These efforts of the Finance Ministry have been highly appreciated by ministries, branches, people and businesses. The Ministry of Finance has led for 2 consecutive years in term of digital transformation among ministries, branches providing public services (Digital Transformation Index -DTI) and in various years kept first ranking in term of IT development and application readiness (Public Administration Reform Index –PAR Index).
According to Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, Deputy Director, Department of Financial Informatics and Statistics (Ministry of Finance), outstanding achievements in digital transformation in the Finance sector shall include firstly activities serving people and businesses, or online public services (DVC). Up to now, the Ministry of Finance has a total of 813 online public services with 409 of level 4, of which 215 in Customs field, 99 in Taxation, 57 in Securities and the rest in other fields under the Finance Ministry’s management. In addition to online public services, the Ministry of Finance has also developed and provided numbers of programs and applications to serve people and businesses such as budget and treasury management systems in treasury management field, automated customs clearance systems in customs field, electronic invoices, Etax-Mobile in taxation field. Accordingly, the provision of digital applications and services to handle administrative procedures in network environment has helped to reduce time and save costs for people and businesses.
Secondly, for state financial management, the Ministry of Finance has implemented core professional programs and applications and gradually formed specialized database warehouses serving for performance of management tasks within the ministry’s coverage. The Ministry of Finance has 12 specialized database warehouses serving 12 important financial fields, including: State budget, taxation, treasury, customs, securities, reserves, prices, insurance, public debt, public property, corporate finance, common shared directory. These database warehouses have effectively served the leaders of the Ministry of Finance in finance - budgetary direction and administration, as well as providing and sharing data to external units serving for general direction and administration of the Government and Prime Minister.
Thirdly, for internal management, the Ministry of Finance has deployed various large application systems to serve internal management activities, typically the E-Document Management and Administration Program (EdocTC). In the context of COVID-19 pandemic taking place for past two years, EdocTC program helped more than 1,400 officials of the Ministry to effectively perform their works, including preparing documents, submitting documents,… without physical presence at the office. The Ministry of Finance has currently deployed digital signatures for all staff in the Ministry of Finance (from leaders to experts).
According to Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, the achievements are majorly attributed to the awareness of leaders at all levels in the Ministry of Finance, from the ministry leaders to the department leaders and leaders of units under the Ministry. Leaders of the Ministry of Finance over the years have set the target of serving people and businesses as top priority, grasped the needs of business and people, the change of trends, thereby making appropriate decisions and directions on implementation of IT development tasks, from the initial computerization period to current digital transformation.
Leading Pressure
In order to maintain the leading position in digital transformation, the Ministry of Finance faced a lot of pressure and difficulties. Sharing about pressures and difficulties encountered in digital transformation implementation process, Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam said it is digital human resources. The inadequacy in salary payment in state administrative agencies in comparison with other non-state agencies makes the state administrative agencies difficult to attract high quality human resources for digital transformation. This is one of the pressures and is a key factor determining the effectiveness of the Ministry of Finance's digital transformation implementation in the context of increasing demand on high-quality human resources for digital transformation works.
Contributing to settle the shortcoming, leaders of the Finance Ministry have timely issued encouraging policies through various forms such as remuneration, awarding certificates of merit to excellent individuals and collectives in specialized agencies in charge of digital transformation of the Ministry. In addition, at the recent meeting in 3rd quarter of the year of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Finance (Minister Ho Duc Phoc) has proposed to the Government on the development of specific mechanism for officers in charge of Information Technology/Digital Transformation.
The difficulties, according to Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, firstly come from lack of synchronization in mechanisms and policies to implement digital transformation. Digital transformation requires quick and prompt implementation, however, it includes number of steps and takes a long time for completing investment procedures, from investment policy formulation to project formulation, project approval, contractor selection, contract signing and contract implementation under prescribed timelines. Information technology/digital transformation projects normally last for from 2 years to 4 years. With such a long time, technology and other problems will change and no longer similar to original requirements.
The second difficulty is awareness of people and businesses of digital transformation in general and utilization of Finance Ministry’s digital services in particular. The most important factor upon providing digital services is possibility and willingness to access, use and exploit by businesses and people. In actual implementation of digital transformation services including e-invoices, Etax- Mobile, a part of people and businesses still keep habit of using paper invoices or paying taxes physically at tax offices, and therefore, hesitate to use such services provided by the Ministry of Finance.
The third difficulty is the popularization of digital applications and services to every citizen and businesses. In fact, when the Ministry of Finance deploys digital applications and services on the Mobile platform, it is difficult for people and businesses (especially in remote and remote communes with difficult economic conditions) to access digital service applications of the Ministry of Finance as they do not use smart phones.
However, according to Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, besides the difficulties and obstacles, the Ministry of Finance has various advantages such as: digital transformation in the financial sector has caught great concern by the Politburo and the Government; the Ministry’s leaders have clear orientations and roadmaps, and drastically direct the implementation of digital transformation tasks to ensure the implementation of digital transformation programs and targets set by the Politburo and the Government; officials and civil servants at units specialized in digital transformation of the Ministry of Finance are qualified, experienced and well-trained in not only information technology, but also trained in analyzing business activities and specialized skills in digital transformation.
E-Tax Highlight
In recent time, the promotion of electronic tax payment and 24/7 clearance of the Customs branch, E-tax on Mobile and implementation of e-invoices replacing paper invoices of the Taxation branch... is considered major Ministry of Finance’s breakthrough. According to Mr. Hoang Xuan Nam, Etax-Mobile and e-invoices have been deployed by the General Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance) since the beginning of 2022, of which, e-invoices to be officially deployed nationwide since 21st April 2022. These are two important foundations for tax management in the financial sector.
The e-invoice platform contributes to transforming the way of serving the people, management method and implementation organization of the tax authorities towards automation in order to reform administrative procedures, facilitate, reduce costs, increase productivity; Promoting development of e-commerce and business on digital platforms in line with global general development trend; Promoting digital transformation in enterprises, financial agencies as well as in other state agencies; Bringing many common benefits to society such as saving costs and resources, protecting environment.
For organizations and individuals purchasing goods and services: helping buyers easily search and compare e-invoices provided by sellers; in comparison to paper invoices, e-invoices helps businesses reduce costs (costs of printing paper, ink, mailing, storing invoices,...), prevent from loss, damage, fire; e-invoices can be checked on taxation’s system right after receiving by buyers to know exact information on invoices declared to taxation authorities and information provided by sellers to buyers.
For organizations and individuals selling goods and providing services: compliance with regulations on invoices and documents by organizations and individuals will help create a healthy and equal business environment; thereby help to facilitate production and business activities of enterprises, reduce administrative procedures related to invoices, reduce time to carry out tax administrative procedures, reduce costs associated with mailing, preserving and storing invoices and reduce risk of loosing invoices.
For taxation authorities and relevant state agencies: e-invoices deployment helps taxation authorities create invoices database in combination with other tax management information to build sufficient database on taxpayers to meet requirements on information analysis for administration, forecasting, supporting taxpayers to comply with tax laws, and risks management in tax administration; contributing to changing management methods on IT application basis, improving professional processes towards automatic data processing and control, helping taxation authorities to effectively use resources and costs;... preventing invoices of fleeing and missing businesses, thereby preventing tax frauds and evasion.
For Etax-Mobile, in addition to benefits as electronic invoices, Etax-Mobile helps to reduce cost and time for businesses and people when carrying out tax payment procedures. Instead of going to Tax Departments and Sub-Departments to pay taxes directly, businesses and people can use the application to fulfill their tax payment obligations anytime, anywhere. Transactions are executed in a timely, accurate and fast manner.
(Thu Hằng)
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