National Assembly discusses increasing the efficiency of state budget management

Increasing the efficiency of State budget management is also the expectation of National Assembly deputies at the discussion in the hall about the draft Law on State Budget (amended) on the afternoon of November 25 of the 8th Session of the 13th National Assembly.

National Assembly delegate of Thai Nguyen province Truong Thi Hue speaks. Photo: VNA

Overcoming shortcomings

According to the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, after 10 years of implementing the State Budget Law, although the Law has come into effect, the operation and management mechanism of the State budget have revealed some limitations.

Specifically, the scope of the budget is not really clear; the management of fees and charges is not yet unified; the decentralization of revenue sources between the central budget and local budgets is still inconsistent with reality; the central budget tends to gradually reduce its leading role; the basis for building the annual state budget estimates is still incomplete, not closely linking the annual budget estimates with the medium-term state financial-budget plan; the management of the state budget is not really tight, not linked with the results of the unit's task performance to ensure improving quality and efficiency.

Therefore, the goal throughout the entire draft Law is to comply with the 2013 Constitution. Accordingly, the State budget is managed in a unified manner, the Central budget plays a leading role; ensuring budget allocation to implement the policies and guidelines of the Party and the State; ensuring the role of the National Assembly as the highest State power agency, deciding on the State budget estimate, allocating the Central budget, deciding on basic financial-budgetary policies and approving the State budget settlement, while at the same time creating conditions for the Government to be proactive in organizing and operating the State budget within the framework of the State budget estimate decided by the National Assembly.

At the same time, promoting administrative reform, expanding autonomy while strengthening implementation supervision, democracy, publicity, and increasing transparency; gradually bringing the State budget management in our country in line with international practices.

On that basis, it is necessary to clarify that the State budget is unified, has decentralized management and ensures the leading role of the Central budget, clearly showing the expenditure tasks of the Central budget associated with the national expenditure tasks. At the same time, clearly decentralize functions and tasks associated with budget decentralization between the Central and local levels. Accordingly, clearly define the scope of tasks and powers of the National Assembly and People's Councils in deciding on the State budget estimate, avoiding duplication and formality.

Regulations need to be strengthened to ensure spending discipline, publicity, transparency, and accountability in budget management and use, especially in the management of State budget revenue and expenditure, which must comply with and concretize the basic principles stipulated in the Constitution. The decision to issue new policies that increase State budget expenditure must ensure the balance of financial resources for implementation; control State budget deficit and ensure national financial security, and link the responsibility of the person deciding to borrow with the responsibility to repay the debt.

According to delegate Vu Chi Thuc (Quang Ninh), the draft Law on State Budget is not comprehensive and not linked to the results of the implementation of output tasks; the regulations on accountability to elected bodies are not specific, public and transparent; the management of the State budget is not consistent with international practices... Therefore, it is very necessary to amend the State budget and overcome the shortcomings in the current Law.

Participate in the consultation

During the discussion session, comments still focused on the following contents: the scale of amendments; specificity; scope of revenue, expenditure and deficit of the State budget; scope of State budget revenue, especially for revenue from lottery activities, land use fees and extra-budgetary financial funds; scope of State budget expenditure including expenditure on source transfers and advances from next year's budget estimates, State budget reserves, etc.

Delegate Tran Dinh Long (Dak Lak) said that the collection of fees needs to be clearly defined which is the source of budget revenue because in reality, many revenue and expenditure items managed through the budget are not strictly controlled. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define the spending tasks, not to include all of them in regular spending, which is very unspecific and unclear: "Statistics only generally state that 70% is for regular spending but it is not clear what it is for," this delegate commented.

At the discussion session, delegate Vu Chi Thuc cited the current state budget revenue regulations including revenues from taxes, fees and charges, but the current inconsistent budget implementation complicates management. Therefore, the draft State Budget Law needs to amend Article 5 of the scope of state budget revenue and expenditure, separating these two contents into two parts.

All revenues from taxes, fees and self-funded service activities performed by state agencies. In case of operating expenses, revenues from collection activities performed by public service units and state-owned enterprises can be deducted and paid to the state budget according to the provisions of law, this delegate proposed.

Regulations on the principle of local balance, which stipulate that in cases where a province directly under a central city needs to invest in building a project program within the scope of the provincial budget, it is necessary to clearly specify the infrastructure and socio-economic structure to unify implementation and supervision according to the provisions of law, are also issues that many delegates are interested in reflecting.

Delegates said it is necessary to set out the principle of a balanced ratio framework for the central budget, avoid spreading public debt and increase the ratio by 150% for localities that have balanced budget revenue.

Regarding the scope of State budget expenditure, delegate Bui Duc Thu (Lai Chau) agreed to eliminate the principal repayment expense to avoid double accounting between years. Expenditures from the issuance of Government bonds and national bonds that are outside the State budget revenue should be included in the balance sheet to reflect the actual expenditure to balance the State budget and to calculate the correct deficit figure.

Regarding the State budget balance, in fact, the regulation currently allows that, if necessary, the local budget has the right to mobilize capital to accelerate the construction investment progress for projects under the 5-year plan decided by the provincial People's Council.

Thus, the local budget is allowed to have a deficit. Therefore, to ensure national financial security, the debt ceiling for local budgets should also be controlled, this delegate suggested.

According to Vietnam+