Support for cement for rural traffic: Inadequacies

(Baonghean) - The province's policy of supporting cement for rural transport is one of the practical policies for the new rural construction movement. However, the limited budget and the lack of decisive participation of relevant units have caused the cement support policy to face difficulties.

Not met the demand

To stimulate demand and accelerate the progress of new rural construction in the province, the Provincial People's Committee promptly issued documents to support cement for rural roads. Accordingly, the support rate is 200 tons of cement/km (for grade A roads) and 150 tons of cement/km (for grade B roads), the remaining cost accounts for about 70% of the total construction volume including sand, gravel, stone and labor contributed by the people and localities mobilized from other sources. At the end of the first phase (2012), the province supported localities with 96,544 tons of cement and built 547 km of rural roads. From the effectiveness of the first phase of cement support policy, the province continued to support cement in the second phase (2013).

Accordingly, the total amount of cement the province has signed contracts with enterprises to supply to districts, cities and towns for rural construction this time is 106,694 tons. However, up to April 25, 2014, localities have only received 93,119 tons, 13,575 tons are still missing from enterprises to supply to localities. As for the third cement support policy (2014), based on the needs of registered localities, the province assigned the Department of Finance to sign contracts with units to supply 94,025 tons of cement to localities. By the end of April, localities had only received 300 tons. The amount of cement the Department of Finance signed contracts with units to supply is only the amount approved by the province, but in reality, the demand for cement for rural construction at the grassroots level is even greater.

Building rural roads in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district.

According to feedback from localities, the progress of supplying cement for rural traffic to implement the new rural area is currently very slow and dribbled. In Kim Lien commune (Nam Dan district), there are currently 4 contents in the 4 criteria of rural traffic, inner fields, irrigation, cultural facilities that have not met the new rural area criteria. Accordingly, it is necessary to build 20 km of rural traffic roads; 22/25 hamlets need to adjust and repair the cultural house grounds, purchase festival kits and build 3.5 km of canals. In order to create a strong response from the people, on February 17, Kim Lien commune organized a launching ceremony for the movement to reach the finish line of building new rural areas in 2014 and after the launching ceremony, the movement to complete the remaining new rural area contents and criteria took place enthusiastically, especially the completion of rural traffic criteria in hamlets Mau 1, Mau 3, Mau 5, Hoi 3, Dong 1, Hong Son 1, Hong Son 2,....

Mr. Tran Le Chuong - Vice Chairman of Kim Lien Commune People's Committee, said: Thanks to the province's cement support policy, the commune Party Committee and government closely directed, the hamlets were determined, the people were able to discuss democratically, the movement to build new rural areas was deployed "noisily" in the hamlets. The hamlets mobilized contributions from the people, on average 200 - 300 thousand VND per person, there were 7 households with a total contribution of 1.4 - 2.1 million VND. In addition to the contribution according to the mobilization level, some households also supported the hamlet to build roads with 5 million VND, such as the family of Mr. Tran Khac Lien, hamlet Hoi 3. However, according to Mr. Tran Le Chuong, the current difficulty is that the amount of cement according to the province's support policy is still slow, affecting the movement to build new rural areas among the people. The commune's demand for cement for rural traffic in 2014 was 3,518 tons, but up to this point, the commune has only received 1,500 tons of cement. Due to the lack of cement, some hamlets have completed the roadbed compaction and the internal traffic system is also waiting for cement. Kim Lien is in need of over 2,000 tons of cement to complete the traffic criteria.

Similarly, in Nam Cat commune, the total amount of cement supported is 2,750 tons, except for the amount of support in the first phase that the commune has received, until now the cement support in the second phase has only received 437/952 tons and 800 tons from 2014 are still not available. Not only in Nam Dan, in the localities of Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Do Luong, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau... are all in the situation of "roads waiting for cement". It is worth mentioning that this is the peak time for rural traffic construction but there is no cement to do it, while the harvest season is approaching and after the harvest season comes the rainy season which will affect rural traffic construction.

What is the solution?

According to Mr. Hoang Viet Duong - Director of the Department of Finance (the unit assigned by the Provincial People's Committee to grasp the demand, allocate cement targets to localities and sign contracts with suppliers), currently, the movement to build new rural areas, especially rural traffic, is on the rise in localities. The demand for cement and the progress requirements of localities are very correct and accurate. However, the most difficult problem now is the funding issue. Implementing the policy of lending cement to build rural traffic roads to build new rural areas, the province has signed contracts with suppliers in 3 phases with a total of 297,263 tons of cement (Vicem Hoang Mai Cement Joint Stock Company, Nghe An Petroleum Cement Joint Stock Company, Cau Duoc Cement and Construction Materials Joint Stock Company). As of April 25, 2014, the total amount of cement received by the districts was 189,963 tons and more than 1,000 km of rural traffic roads have been built. The total estimated budget to be spent according to the signed contract targets and plans is 432 billion VND.

However, after two cement supply periods (2012 and 2013), the province still owes businesses 127.8 billion VND. And with the need for funds to buy cement in the third period, equivalent to 148.4 billion VND, the province needs 276.2 billion VND to meet the demand for cement loans for localities. However, the province's budget for buying cement to support localities in building new rural areas that are facing difficulties, the estimated budget allocation for buying cement in 2014 is only 50 billion VND, plus 25 billion VND to reward communes that finish early, the total is only 75 billion VND, while the need for new funds and old debts is more than 276 billion VND, not enough to pay old debts to businesses, leading to limited supply from businesses. On the other hand, the need for cement support from localities occurring at the same time is also a difficult problem.

At the recent meeting between the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council and the Cement Company, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Huy - General Director of Hoang Mai Cement Company, said: According to the commitment signed between the province and the enterprise, the payment period for cement purchase will be implemented when the enterprise supplies 30,000 tons of cement within 3 months. And by April 30, 2014, the enterprise had supplied 70,317 tons to localities through the intermediary unit Thanh Luan Company Limited, but had only received payment of 29.5 billion VND and the province owed 42.233 billion VND. Although the province has sent a document requesting Hoang Mai Cement Company to extend debt repayment at the end of 2014 and 2015, according to the company representative, the unit needs money to buy input materials and pay salaries to workers. On the other hand, in the current conditions, other places buy and pay immediately but there is no cement to sell.

According to research, the current cement production volume reaches 2 million tons/year and the cement supply for the new rural construction program is only about 10%, so the opinion that the supply is not guaranteed is unreasonable. But the most difficult thing now is the lack of budget to ensure the purchase of cement to supply to localities. According to Mr. Hoang Viet Duong - Director of the Department of Finance, although there are many financial difficulties, the province's cement support policy must continue to be implemented. The Department of Finance will advise the Provincial People's Committee to advance money for granting land use rights in 2014, borrow capital to solidify canals, borrow from idle capital of the treasury to pay debts to enterprises; or enterprises let the province calculate late payment interest according to bank regulations. Enterprises also need to have the responsibility to accompany the province in the task of socio-economic development, specifically implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction of the Party and State.

According to the Deputy Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council, Mr. Tran Quoc Chung, the province should directly work with cement production units to sign contracts to purchase and supply cement to localities, and should not transfer money to intermediary companies. On the other hand, it is also necessary to consider the proposal of the districts to transfer to the districts to sign contracts with factories to supply cement. The advantage is that the districts will be more proactive in cement demand and the time of cement demand; if it is transferred to the districts, the province must ensure adequate funding for the districts, because otherwise the localities will also become debtors like the first phase policy. Many districts are in debt for cement transportation, such as Nghi Loc district, the transportation fee is 1.6 billion VND but the province has only transferred 400 million VND.

Article and photos:Plum Blossom