Civil servant salaries will increase to 1.49 million VND/month.

Minister Dinh Tien Dung stated that the plan for allocating the 2019 central government budget is based on the projected total revenue of the state budget for 2019, which is 1,411,300 billion VND.

The projected budget deficit is 222,000 billion VND. The projected total balanced budget expenditure is 1,633,300 billion VND.

With a 7% increase, the basic salary will rise by 100,000 VND/month, from 1.39 million VND to 1.49 million VND.

Minister Dinh Tien Dung announced that approximately 16,200 billion VND is expected to be spent on salary reform based on adjusting the basic salary from 1.39 million VND/month to 1.49 million VND/month, starting from July 1, 2019. Pensions and preferential allowances for meritorious individuals will increase at the same rate and time as the basic salary increase.

Reviewing the implementation of the 2018 state budget and the 2019 budget estimates, the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly noted that the planned budget expenditure structure is shifting in a positive direction: reducing the proportion of recurrent expenditure and increasing the proportion of investment expenditure in the total state budget expenditure.

In 2019, the proportion of recurrent expenditure was projected to be approximately 63.8% of total expenditure (lower than the 2018 estimate of 64.1%), while the proportion of investment expenditure was 26.3% (higher than the 2018 estimate of 26.2%). Although the change in these ratios is still very modest, it has contributed to ensuring the target of investment expenditure - recurrent expenditure structure as stipulated in the National Assembly's resolution.

In particular, given the difficulties in state budget revenue collection, the increased allocation of salary expenditures (a 100,000 VND/month increase in the basic salary from July 1, 2019), and the need to ensure increasingly comprehensive social security policies, the planned shift in the structure of state budget expenditures reflects the efforts in management and administration by the Government, ministries, sectors, and local authorities at all levels, the verification report stated.

However, some opinions within the reviewing body suggest that allocating a higher base salary increase compared to recent years would create more pressure and difficulties in reducing recurrent expenditures in accordance with resolutions of the Central Committee and the National Assembly.