The beer and alcohol sector is hit hard by COVID-19 (Photo:baodautu.vn)

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - About 16,000businesses are not included in the Ministry of Finance’s support package on taxand land rent, according to economic experts.

Pham Dinh Thi, directorof the Tax Policy Department under the Ministry of Finance, said about 98 percentof businesses would benefit from the package with total tax and land rent beingextended to 180 trillion VND (7.67 billion USD).

However, economic experts saidthat there are 2 percent of 800,000 enterprises nationwide, equivalent to 16,000enterprises that have not been considered for taxextension support.

Notably, more than 1,000businesses in the beverage sector have been affected by COVID-19. Most of their goods are notconsumed, while more than 200,000 workers of the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association (VBA) have had their work interrupted.

🔴 Nguyen Van Viet, VBAchairman, said that not only workers but the State's revenue has also been affected bythe impact of COVID-19.

Every year, this associationcontributes more than 60 trillion VND to the Statebudget.

Therefore, the chairman proposedthe Government and the Ministry of Finance to consider and allow beverageindustries to be eligible for tax and land rent extension.

Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong, lecturer atthe National Economics University, said that in order to cover allbusinesses hit by COVID-19, the Ministry of Finance should stipulate businesseswhich are damaged by the pandemic will be supportedfrom the package, and not distinguish specific industries.

The National Economics Universityrecently made a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Vietnamese economy.

Results from the survey showedthat to deal with difficulties caused by the pandemic, 65.5 percent ofbusinesses cut down their regular operating costs; 35.3 percent ofenterprises had to reduce their workforce; 34 percenthad to cut workers' wages and 34.5 percent had to give workers leavewithout pay.

Nearly 45 percent of businessescut production and business scale; 34.7 percent of businesses chose to suspendproduction and business activities to wait through difficult times and 15.1 percentof enterprises changed their businessand production form to suit the new context.

⛄ The report also showed thatalthough the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely tohave an impact in the medium and long term, the economy would need at least onequarter to recover after the pandemic is under control./.