Electronic bill upgrade unnecessary, costly: fuel retailers

An average fuel station will need to spend VND400 million to VND1 billion ($16,500-41,200) to replace its current hardware and software to meet the new electronic bill requirement from the government, retailers said in a recent joint letter to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Chinh twice in the last two weeks demanded that fuel retailers switch from paper bills to electronic bills before the end of this month to avoid tax evasion charges.

In Vietnam, most customers do not ask for a receipt when they get a refill. Fuel retailers often wait until the end of the day to calculate their sales and report the aggregated figure to tax authorities.

A retailer in the central province of Ha Tinh said that the cost of installing a fuel dispenser that can issue an electronic bill for every sale is between VND135 million and VND500 million. A station has three dispensers on average.

Ha Thanh Tung, a representative of Ha Giang Fuel, said that the cost of upgrading to electronic bills will be hundreds of times higher than the current system.

Many customers do not have a habit of collecting bills and will not want to provide personal information for the electronic bills, he said.

Dang Hoai Phuong, CEO of Phuong Nam Fuel, said that issuing a bill for every sale is a “waste of resources.”

Economist Dinh Trong Thinh said that although electronic bills are necessary, it takes time for fuel retailers to make the transition.

The government had in fact wanted fuel stations to switch to electronic bills in July last year but many did not comply and continued to submit bills to the tax authorities and at random times.

Retailer Van Tan Phung in the southern province of Dong Nai said that the current system of issuing bills by the end of the day was just fine and tax authorities can examine them to see if there are any discrepancies.

Other retailers proposed that retail prices be increased by 0.5% so retailers have funds to pay for the upgrade.

There are 17,000 fuel stations in the country, but only 2,700 — belonging to Petrolimex — have been upgraded to issue electronic bills. Petrolimex has issued around one billion electronic bills every year in the last five years.