Specifically, according to information from the General Department of Taxation, OCB needs to pay additional taxes in several categories, including VAT related to L/C activities from 2020 to 2022.
Sharing about this issue, OCB said: “In the process of operation and development, we always commit to and fully comply with tax obligations. Especially in recent years, OCB has consistently been among the top 30 largest tax-paying enterprises in Vietnam. Regarding the need for the bank to pay additional taxes, related to tax notices with changes, OCB has completed the supplementary payment immediately after receiving information about this issue”.
Regarding the declaration of L/C tax payments, the Association of Banks has also announced that from 2011 to now, the deficiencies of CIs in declaring VAT for L/C fees for credit granting nature are not the fault of CIs, CIs do not intentionally violate, do not intentionally evade tax obligations. Because the nature of the L/C service has not changed before and after January 1, 2011 (the effective date of the Law on CIs in 2010). In addition, CIs often have the characteristic of a system with many branches, transaction locations spread across the country, many units have changes, splits, mergers, a large number of transactions, occurring over a long period of time. Therefore, it will take a lot of time, effort, and resources to review and reconcile.
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According to the recently published financial report by OCB, as of December 31, 2023, the bank’s total assets reached 239,454 billion VND, an increase of 23.4% compared to 2022. The total market mobilization reached 168,112 billion VND, up 22.4% compared to the same period. Market debt 1 increased by 20.5% compared to 2022, reaching 148,005 billion VND. 2023 was also the year OCB successfully increased its charter capital to 20,548 billion VND, with pre-tax profit reaching 5,227 billion VND, an increase of 19.1% compared to 2022.
In addition, OCB also proactively reduces costs, creating conditions to lower interest rates for customer loans, as the CIR (cost-to-income ratio) decreased to only 33.3%, while in 2022 it was 36.3%, which is considered one of the few banks with excellent business performance and good cost control in 2023 when the overall business environment of banks nationwide is still facing many difficulties.
