Vietnam is coordinating with Japan on the investigation of a Japanese company allegedly paying bribes to Vietnamese tax and customs officials, said Minister of Public Security To Lam on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on May 26.

Minister of Public Security To Lam speaks to the press on the sidelines
of the National Assembly meeting on May 26. (Photo: VNA)

The case is being examined and inspected by tax and financial inspectorate agencies in Vietnam, Lam said.

He further noted that the Vietnamese side has started by exchanging information with Japan as the allegation originated from the Japanese side.

Earlier, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has requested an urgent investigation into the alleged bribery of Vietnamese officials by Tenma Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan’s plastic product maker Tenma Corporation.

Dung requested the Director-General of the General Department of Taxation and the Director-General of the General Department of Vietnam Customs to report to the ministry on recent allegations in Japanese media about bribes paid by Tenma Vietnam to the tune of US$232,000 to avoid paying corporate and value-added tax.

At the same time, he assigned the Ministry's inspection agency to immediately set up an inspection team to examine the Tax Department and the Customs Department in northern Bac Ninh province, where Tenma Vietnam is located.

The case came into the spotlight when Japanese media including Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Kyodo news agency and Nikkei, reported that Tenma Vietnam gave a bribe of US$232,000 to Vietnamese customs officials.

According to Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo-based Tenma Corporation confessed the case to the Tokyo District Prosecutor. Tenma Corporation reportedly took the initiative to set up a third-party committee to investigate the violation. Bribing foreign governments is a prohibited practice in Japan.