The Thai retailer group has to date made payments totalling US$22.3 million with the remainder of more than VND1.53 trillion to be paid no later than August 31, the online newspaper cited a source from the General Department of Customs as saying.

The Big C chain was sold by its previous owner, France's Casino Group, to the Central Group for one US$1.14 billion in April.

The Casino group has made significant investments for more than 18 years to develop its subsidiary Big C in Vietnam to create a leading food retailer in the country. Big C Vietnam consists of a network of 43 stores and 30 shopping malls and in 2015 achieved an after-tax turnover of EUR586 million.