Concerns about the situation of requesting to withdraw, add or withdraw when making laws

The National Assembly Standing Committee has just given its opinion on the proposed Law and Ordinance Development Program for 2019. Examining the Government's proposal, Chairman of the Law Committee Nguyen Khac Dinh assessed that the establishment and implementation of the Program still has limitations.

Specifically, the dossiers proposing the development of a number of law projects such as the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended), the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control (amended), the Law on Health Prevention and Improvement... have not been well prepared, and the situation of requesting to postpone, withdraw, or add projects to the Program still occurs frequently.

In 2017, 6 projects were added, 5 projects were submitted later, 3 projects were withdrawn from the Program, 2 projects were approved according to the 3-session process. In 2018, the Government proposed adjusting the submission time of 3 projects, 10 projects were added... "Many National Assembly deputies are concerned about the trend of one law amending many laws, integrating incentives, making the legal system unstable. The promulgation of the Planning Law led to the amendment of more than 25 laws; the development of the revised National Defense Law required the amendment, supplementation and promulgation of 9 new laws and ordinances...", Mr. Dinh said.

The review report also assessed that the organization of collecting opinions and participating in the opinions of relevant agencies and organizations for many projects is still a formality. The Government has not arranged time to discuss in depth the specific policies of each project. In the process of drafting and receiving and revising, the heads of some drafting agencies spend little time participating, mainly assigning it to subordinates.

Besides, the National Assembly's review body in some cases has not been really frank and resolute in defending its viewpoints.

Regarding the adjustment of the 2018 Program, the Government proposed to withdraw 1 project from the Program, postpone the submission of 2 projects, and add to the Program 10 draft laws (6 projects related to the Law on Planning), 1 draft resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee, in which at the 5th Session, the submission of 2 draft laws was postponed and 4 draft laws were added. At the 8th Session, 1 draft law was withdrawn and 5 draft laws were added.

There are 6 projects that the National Defense and Security Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Finance and Budget Committee and the Law Committee agreed with the Government's proposal. These are the Law on Commune Police (withdrawn from the Program) to incorporate the content into the Law on People's Public Security (amended); the Law on People's Public Security (amended) (added to the Program for comments at the 5th session, passed at the 6th session); the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments, postponing the submission time from the 5th session to the 6th session; the Law on Tax Administration (amended) added to the Program for comments at the 6th session, passed at the 7th session; the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection Tax, postponing the submission time from the 5th session to the 8th session; the Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the environmental protection tax schedule proposed to be added to the May 2018 session.

Explaining, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long shared that the Government faced a number of challenges in the process of building laws in 2018 - 2019. That is, it is necessary to simultaneously institutionalize the Party's Resolutions; and at the same time, it is necessary to deal with the practical issue of solving the investment and business environment. In addition, it is necessary to amend a series of laws according to the requirements of the Planning Law to meet the effective date...

"These are the reasons, delegates please forgive the Government's story of asking for postponement and withdrawal", the Minister of Justice explained and added that the subjective reason that has not been overcome for many years is that the investment of resources and the attention of some ministries and branches directly drafting the law are still limited and have not met the requirements./.