A number of owners of foreign-invested businesses in Ho Chi Minh City
and the neighboring province of Dong Nai have suddenly disappeared, leaving
behind empty manufacturing plants and a huge amount of unpaid wages to employees
and taxes to the government.
The Dong Nai management board of
the province’s industrial parks has recently revoked the investment licenses of
17 such businesses. Meanwhile the HCMC customs agency said 128 foreign invested
businesses operating as outsourcers for other companies have also fled their
locations, defaulting on VND400 billion worth of taxes.
Most of the business owners of
the canceled projects in Dong Nai have returned to their home countries without
completing the procedures to declare dissolution.
Some have even managed to
secretly transport their machinery and equipment out of the plants, only
leaving behind low-value machines that are not enough to cover the salary debts
they owe to workers.
Similarly, the list of defaulting
foreign-invested business owners in HCMC has repeatedly seen new names added to
it.
Most have left behind enormous
amounts of unsettled taxes, local authorities said.
The 100 percent South
Korea-invested Silver Star Vietnam, for instance, still owes as much as VND29.6
billion worth of unpaid taxes, but all authorities found at its headquarters in
Binh Tan District was a deserted land plot without a single piece of machinery.
Out of control
Doan Phi Van, deputy head of the
agency that manages the investment sector under the HCMC Customs Agency, said
authorities have trouble retrieving the unpaid taxes as they do not know where
to find the defaulters.
Van said inspections of the
businesses also face problems.
“Some businesses declare that
their headquarters are in the city, but their manufacturing plants are located
in other localities,” she said.
“Moreover, we have to inform them
of the inspection before hand, which in fact gives them time prepare to pass
the check.”
To deal with the issue, the
Ministry of Planning and Investment has recently ruled that provinces and
cities should withdraw the licenses of sluggish foreign investors.
“Any FDI projects that fail to
proceed within 12 months of receiving the license without adequate reasons will
be pulled out,” the ministry said in a statement.
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