Are beautiful number plates public property?

Secretary General of the National Assembly Nguyen Hanh Phuc asked. Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung affirmed that it is public property, if the auction is conducted well, the state will collect money.

Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung - Photo: VIET DUNG

On the afternoon of September 15, Minister Dinh Tien Dung, on behalf of the Government, submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments on the draft Law on Management and Use of State Assets (amended).

Tighten management of state assets in enterprises

According to Mr. Dung, this draft law aims to "overcome the shortcomings and limitations of the current Law on Management and Use of State Assets; ensure effective and economical investment, procurement, management, use and exploitation of public assets, meeting management requirements in the new situation of resource exploitation for socio-economic development, practicing thrift, combating loss, waste and corruption".

One of the new points of the draft law is to adjust the management and use of real estate assets assigned to socio-political and professional organizations, social organizations, and socio-professional organizations from the mechanism applied as state agencies under current law to the mechanism allowing organizations to exploit real estate assigned by the State in the form of service business, leasing, joint ventures, and associations with specific binding conditions to improve the efficiency of asset use and exploitation.

“Regarding public assets assigned by the State to enterprises for management, excluding the State capital component in enterprises (such as: land, infrastructure assets, project assets), in reality in our country, these assets are quite large, especially infrastructure assets, but management work is sometimes wasteful and ineffective, mainly due to the lack of clear regulations on authority, responsibility and management mechanism” - Minister Dung assessed.

He said: "The draft law stipulates a number of management contents to clarify the rights and responsibilities of relevant agencies, avoid wasteful use and loss of assets, as well as have a mechanism to manage, use and develop this group of assets such as: enterprises are responsible for managing and using assigned assets for the right purpose and function of the assets".

“The cost of repairing and maintaining assets (if any) is guaranteed by the enterprise, except in cases where the law provides otherwise; the enterprise is responsible for accounting and calculating depreciation of assigned assets according to the provisions of law; the enterprise must fully perform its financial obligations to the state and the management and use of the proceeds from the exploitation and handling of public assets shall comply with the provisions of the law on the state budget”.

"So much pent up frustration for so long"

“I would like to ask if software, radio frequencies, and license plates (beautiful plates) are assets? How are they managed?” - Secretary General of the National Assembly Nguyen Hanh Phuc asked.

Minister Dinh Tien Dung replied: “Software and frequencies are assets, software is intellectual property and is also managed and auctioned according to regulations. The same goes for license plates, they are assets, if we exploit them well and auction them, we will also have revenue for the state.”

Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Vo Trong Viet commented: "When this law is presented to the National Assembly, there will be many opinions, because the people have been suppressing so much frustration for so long."

Mr. Viet said: “For example, if the Da Nang Administrative Center cannot be used anymore, it must be moved. Then it is public property, so how does this law handle it, because the construction of that center is regulated by the Construction Law.”

Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee Le Thi Nga is concerned about two issues: the management of public vehicles and public housing. “I read the report of the Ministry of Finance and it is assessed that the number of public vehicles is still large and the situation of misuse still exists. I am also concerned about the vehicle allocation mechanism, which is very popular in other countries but very limited in our country. How will we implement the allocation mechanism in the future?”, Ms. Nga said.

Many members of the National Assembly Standing Committee suggested that this law should regulate assets managed and used by Party agencies to ensure compliance with general principles.

The draft law will be considered and discussed by the National Assembly at its session later this year.

According to Tuoi Tre