As of May 15, the total tax debt at the HCM City Customs Department reached VND2.4trn (USD102.2m), of which over VND1.4trn were bad debts.

The Customs Department in HCM City has publicly named over 1,000 firms who owned customs taxes.

The department has used many measures to collect the debts but many firms have no longer operated at their registered addresses.

In an attempt to deal with the debts, they released a list of up to 1,047 firms who owed VND996bn (USD42.4m) of bad debts to the public.

Most of the tax evaders are FDI firms and the majority of the firms are exporters in the fashion, textiles and manufacturing industries.

Leading the list if NIVL Company in Ben Luc District, Long An Province. By the end of April, it owned over VND150bn (USD4.5m) of taxes.

NIVL went into operation in 2007 and is an FDI company. The company specialised in sugar manufacturing and food trading. It has ceased to operate and the director, A Nanda Kumar, already left Vietnam.

The Silver Star Vietnam Company owed over VND47bn (USD2m) of taxes. It stopped all operation in 2011 and didn't pay taxes.

Neocase Vietnam with Jeon Jeong Jae as the legal representative owed VND30bn. It opened in 2007 and shut down in 2014.

Other firms are Kwang Nam Footwear Manufacturing Co., Ltd with a VND36bn (USD1.5m) of tax debts, Hong Better Garment Company Limited with VND22.4bn and Sepplus Vietnam Fashion Co., Ltd with VND19bn.

According to the HCM City Customs Department, those debts accumulated since many years ago and the many investors already fled the registered addressed or the country.