Hanoi develops e-commerce database

The Hanoi Department of Taxation has set up an e-commerce database to better monitor transactions in cyberspace, which could accurately determine the cash flow, delivery times and home addresses of businesses and merchants.

The database holds e-commerce data from 418 companies and trading platforms, nearly 670 digital businesses and about 366,000 e-commerce sellers, according to Nguyen Tien Truong, Deputy Director of the department.

"The numbers highlight a shift in shopping behavior as people increasingly prefer to shop online rather than traditional markets or supermarkets for convenience and fast delivery," Truong said. 

A customer shops online at Shopee, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Vietnam. Photo: Hoai Nam/The Hanoi Times

The system has identified nearly 509,000 stores, corresponding to more than 432,000 tax codes of merchants on e-commerce platforms with their name, address, citizen ID, email, phone number, warehouse address, bank account and sales value on e-commerce platforms.

"Through data collection from delivery services, more than 219,600 e-commerce stores were found, corresponding to about 236,400 tax codes, an increase of 132% in identification rate compared to the same period last year. The database makes it possible to determine which tax collector is supervising which taxpayer," Truong added.

Nearly 87,000 organizations and individuals have been audited by the Hanoi Department of Taxation and subject to pay taxes, including more than 29,500 e-commerce enterprises, an increase of 53% year-on-year, and over 16,880 individual e-commerce traders, an increase of 159%," he said.

In particular, thanks to a strong data system, the sector has effectively dealt with evasion, such as not keeping a record of the content of money transfers. "This shows the determination of the tax department to collect from e-commerce."

The Hanoi Department of Taxation has focused on inspecting e-commerce businesses with large revenues so that they understand their responsibilities and commit to seriously filing and paying taxes according to regulations.

In the coming period, the agency will monitor the progress of budget collection and analyze factors affecting revenue. At the same time, it will coordinate with the police and relevant agencies to build a database for comprehensive management of e-commerce merchants and prevent loss of state budget revenue. In particular, it will focus on strengthening the control of cross-border e-commerce transactions in the coming time.