State budget collections in Ho Chi Minh City in January were estimated at VND42.47 trillion (US$1.84 billion), 11.6% of the estimate and up 2.9% year-on-year, according to the municipal Statistics Office.

Domestic budget collections declined 3.5% year-on-year to VND31.27 trillion, accounting for 73.6% of the total.

Revenue from crude oil totalled VND800 billion, down 55.5%.

Notably, revenue from exports and imports surged 47.2% annually to VND10.4 trillion. The increase is linked to good growth of the city’s import-export activities in the period, at 46.9% year on year.

State-owned enterprises contributed over VND2.96 trillion to the State budget, making up 11% of domestic collections, up 4.3% year-on-year. Contributions from private enterprises fell 8.5% to over VND9.8 trillion, while that from foreign-invested enterprises was over VND9.4 trillion, down 3.1%.

Pham Thi Hong Ha, Director of the municipal Department of Finance, said that the finance sector will focus on measures to manage and increase revenues, and speed up equitization and divestment of State-owned enterprises in line with the approved plan.

Attention will be paid to removing difficulties facing enterprises and individuals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to help them recover their production and business as soon as possible, towards increasing sustainable State budget revenue, she added.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Tax Department Nguyen Nam Binh, the city’s tax sector set a target to collect at least 25% of the yearly budget collection estimate right in the first quarter of 2021.