VietNamNet Bridge – The Finance Ministry wants the two largest gold factories – Bong Mieu and Phuoc Son in the central province of Quang Nam - to resume operation. However, local tax authorities have not agreed.

The two gold factories have been closed for over a month.

In late July, the Canadian Group – Bersa - announced the closure of the two gold mining factories in Vietnam after the Quang Nam Provincial Department of Taxation blocked its bank accounts and disabled their invoices for their tax debts worth ten of millions of USD.

The closure affected more than 1,000 workers and caused widespread illegal gold mining in Quang Nam.

According to the Quang Nam Department of Taxation, the tax debts of the two gold companies of Bong Mieu and Phuoc Son made significant impacts on the budget of Phuoc Son district (the home to Phuoc Son Gold Company) and Phu Ninh district (where has the Bong Mieu Gold Company). To date, the two districts have collected merely 20 percent of the estimated budget for 2014.

The Finance Ministry said that they had researched documents and statistics and found that the two gold companies did not commit tax evasion. They owe taxes because of financial problems.

On average, the gold companies had to pay taxes of about VND100 billion ($5 million) to the local budgets annually. Since last year, they have faced difficulties caused by natural disasters, and had to cease production for several months, while they still had to pay wages for workers.

An official from the Ministry said that regarding the gold firms’ cash flow, it is still positive. Bong Mieu suffered losses but Phuoc Son still had profits. The Ministry’s viewpoint is to allow the two gold mining firms to resume operation as soon as possible.

According to the Quang Nam Department of Taxation, Besra started incurring tax debt from June 2010. By June 2014, the total debt was over VND230 billion (about $12 million).

S. Tung