Minister Ho Duc Phoc: Many ministries, branches and localities have not yet allocated all assigned capital plans.
Presenting a report on the results of practicing thrift and fighting waste in 2021 to the National Assembly on the afternoon of May 23, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said: The allocation of capital plans of a number of central and local ministries and branches is still slow, 9/50 ministries and 21/63 localities have not yet allocated all the capital plans assigned by the Prime Minister; a number of ministries and central agencies have a fairly high rate of unallocated capital.
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| Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc presents a report to the National Assembly. Photo: Van Diep/VNA |
According to Minister Ho Duc Phoc, from the beginning of 2021, the Government identified accelerating the progress of implementation and disbursement of public investment capital as an important and urgent task, contributing to promoting economic growth, creating jobs and income for workers, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Prime Minister has issued many documents, directives, telegrams... to guide, deploy, urge, and promote disbursement of public investment capital, ensuring the correct goals and orientations; chaired a national online conference on accelerating public investment disbursement, requesting heads of ministries, agencies, and localities to resolutely accelerate the progress of public investment disbursement according to plan, focusing on focused and key investments in key industries and fields, driving regions, growth poles, important and urgent projects, and key infrastructure works in the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.
Establish a special working group of the Prime Minister to review, remove difficulties and obstacles and promote the implementation of investment projects in ministries, branches and localities; the working group directs the development of a pilot project on separating site clearance and resettlement from investment projects. Timely adjust and supplement public investment plans, reduce capital from undisbursed projects to projects with good disbursement and need for additional capital; establish working groups to inspect, urge, remove difficulties and obstacles, and promote the disbursement of public investment capital in 2021 in a number of ministries, branches and localities.
The Minister said: The total capital plan assigned by the National Assembly is 540,648.2 trillion VND. The cumulative disbursement in 2021 is 383.57 trillion VND, reaching 83.15% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister (461.3 trillion VND) (in the same period in 2020, it reached 85.58% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister). Of which, domestic capital is 368,930.3 billion VND (reaching 75.43% of the assigned plan of 489,098.2 billion VND); foreign capital is 14,641.19 billion VND (reaching 28.40% of the assigned plan of 51,550 billion VND). Estimated payment from the beginning of the year to January 31, 2022 is VND 431,188.53 billion, reaching 93.47% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister (the same period in 2020 reached 97.5% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister).
The capital disbursement work has been strongly directed by the Government and the Prime Minister and coordinated by ministries and central branches to promote the implementation of public investment projects from the State budget. Many ministries, agencies, localities and a number of large, important national projects have disbursement results reaching over 95% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister such as: Vietnam News Agency (100%), Development Bank (100%), National Assembly Office (100%), State Bank of Vietnam (100%), Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (100%)...
Besides, there are still 9/50 ministries and 21/63 localities that have not yet allocated all the capital plans assigned by the Prime Minister. Some ministries and central agencies have a high rate of unallocated capital (over 50%) such as: Ethnic Committee (100%), Ministry of Information and Communications (96.79%), Ministry of Industry and Trade (65.4%)...
Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said that the reason is that 2021 is the first year of the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period, many tasks and projects that have just started construction must wait for the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period to be approved before being assigned detailed plans; some localities cannot ensure revenue sources to allocate to projects due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The quality of planning, allocation and preparation of public investment projects in some places still has many shortcomings, is a formality, leading to many projects being assigned plans but still unable to be implemented; compensation and site clearance are major bottlenecks for project implementation. The disbursement rate of public investment capital is low compared to the assigned plan, not creating a driving force to promote economic growth. It is estimated that by the end of January 2022, there will be 20 ministries, branches and 7 localities with a disbursement rate of less than 70% such as: Ethnic Committee (0%), Ministry of Information and Communications (2.92%), Ho Chi Minh City National University (5.89%)...