Many fees and charges will be transferred to the service price mechanism.

(Baonghean) - One of the "hot" issues in the National Assembly and in people's lives is the Draft Law on Fees and Charges. How does the current Ordinance regulate fees and charges associated with public services? How are fees and charges collected, managed and used? The socialization of public service provision, especially fees provided by enterprises, will have to be transferred to service prices... are the contents that Nghe An Newspaper reporters discussed with the Director of the Tax Policy Department (Ministry of Finance) Pham Dinh Thi. We respectfully introduce to readers.

PV:Dear Comrade Pham Dinh Thi, after more than 16 years of being put into practice, the Ordinance on Fees and Charges has been amended and supplemented to promulgate the Law on Fees and Charges. Could you please tell us the viewpoint of the Ministry of Finance when drafting the Law on Fees and Charges to submit to the Government and the National Assembly for consideration and promulgation?

Collecting road fees at Nghe An Motor Vehicle Inspection Center. Photo: Sy Minh

Comrade Pham Dinh Thi:As one of the sources of revenue for the state budget, fees and charges have a great and profound impact on social life, including the fields of production, business, services and daily life of all people. Therefore, as the agency responsible for drafting the bill, the viewpoint of the Ministry of Finance is first of all to ensure compliance with the Constitution, the unity and uniformity of the legal system on tax and state budget management; in accordance with the Tax System Reform Strategy for the period 2011-2020; institutionalizing the Party and State's policies and guidelines on innovating the financial mechanism of public service units.

In addition, this draft law must be focused, fully and promptly reflecting the revenue from fees and charges to the State budget, ensuring transparency in the management and use of revenue from fees and charges. It is necessary to ensure strengthening of state management and financial discipline; increasing decentralization to local authorities in the collection, management and use of revenue from fees and charges; gradually converting fees that are essentially service prices to market price mechanisms with a suitable roadmap, in order to attract resources for the development of public services. In addition, this draft must be inherited, ensuring the legalization of relevant regulations, while thoroughly overcoming the limitations and inadequacies of the current fee and charge policy.

From that perspective, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government and the National Assembly a draft law on fees and charges to achieve important goals such as: establishing a complete and synchronous legal framework, ensuring consistency and compliance with relevant legal regulations; gradually focusing on timely and complete reflection of revenue from fees and charges; overcoming limitations in the management of revenue from fees and charges; gradually calculating correctly and fully all costs to meet the requirements set out for the process of innovating the management mechanism of public service units, promoting the socialization of some types of public services, in line with the operation of the socialist-oriented market economy; ensuring public, transparent, easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement fee and charge policies, creating convenience for people and businesses, contributing to promoting administrative reform.

PV:The current Ordinance stipulates fees and charges associated with public services provided by both the State and enterprises, but the collection, management and use of fees and charges are regulated by the State. This does not encourage enterprises to participate in providing public services. What is the Ministry of Finance's view on this issue, sir?

Comrade Pham Dinh Thi:That is one of the issues that reality has raised, and is one of the important driving forces to promote the need to amend and upgrade the legality of the ordinance on fees and charges into law. The fees in the list attached to the draft Law are all provided by state agencies and public service units. However, in the future, some fees have high socialization potential and can be transferred to enterprises to provide. Therefore, for some fees, the determination of the fee level needs to take into account the "appropriate profit" level to encourage enterprises to invest in providing public services. Therefore, the draft Law stipulates the principle of determining the fee level to ensure cost recovery, appropriate profit and take into account the state's policies in each period.

To promote socialization and attract resources to participate in providing public services, the Draft Law stipulates the scope of regulation in the direction of promulgating a list of fees and charges associated with public services provided by the State, but in cases where such services are provided by enterprises, the service price will be implemented according to the provisions of the Law on Prices. The collection level is determined according to basic principles. Specifically, for fees: due to being associated with public services in sectors and fields where each service has different characteristics, users and socialization capabilities, the collection level is determined differently (there are fees that are only intended to cover part of the costs, there are fees that are guaranteed to cover all costs).

Regarding fees, current law stipulates: the fee collection level is predetermined for each job, not for the purpose of compensating for costs (the registration fee collection level is calculated as a percentage of the value of the registered property). Accordingly, fees are associated with state management activities, implemented by state agencies, so it is appropriate to stipulate that the fee collection level is not for the purpose of compensating for costs. Therefore, the draft Law on Inheritance stipulates this principle. In reality, in addition to the two types of fees directly related to the people, tuition fees and hospital fees, which have been and are being implemented according to the price mechanism and have a roadmap for implementation, this draft law stipulates that 19 types of fees will be converted to service prices to accelerate socialization and attract investment to develop public services.

To suit the actual conditions, these 19 items are expected to be divided into two groups. The group of fees priced by the State includes 12 items, such as: market fees, port and station usage fees; sanitation fees... These services have few providers or are easily monopolized, so they need to be managed by the State. The group of fees declared and listed by service providers (market prices) includes 7 items: job referral fees, surveying and cadastral mapping fees, medical equipment testing fees... Notably, the draft Law will stipulate an appendix to the list of services priced by the State to ensure implementation as soon as this Law comes into effect without the need to amend the Law on Prices.

PV:Could you elaborate on the roadmap for converting hospital fees to a price mechanism, as well as the roadmap for calculating prices for public services using state budget funds?

Comrade Pham Dinh Thi:According to the draft Law, tuition and hospital fees will be implemented according to the price mechanism, to ensure consistency with the provisions of current laws, specifically the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment and the Law on Prices. Regarding hospital fees, Decree No. 85/2012/ND-CP dated October 15, 2012 of the Government on the financial mechanism for public health service units and prices of medical examination and treatment services of public medical examination and treatment facilities specifically stipulates the roadmap for transitioning from hospital fees to prices of medical examination and treatment services.

Accordingly, starting from 2013, service prices are calculated based on direct costs: medicine, chemicals; electricity, water; equipment maintenance, etc. 2014-2017 period: Service prices (in addition to the expenses as in 2013 mentioned above) are calculated to include salary costs, outsourcing wages, asset depreciation, and indirect costs for hospital operations. From 2018 onwards, service prices are calculated to cover all implementation costs. Therefore, based on the above regulations, hospital fees are gradually shifting to a service price mechanism and are implemented according to the existing roadmap.

Regarding the roadmap for calculating prices for public career services using state budget funds, currently, there is no roadmap for implementing the pricing mechanism for state education and training services, but there are regulations on the autonomy mechanism of public career units. According to the roadmap for calculating prices for public career services, by 2016, it will be necessary to calculate the full cost of salaries and direct costs (not including management costs and fixed asset depreciation costs). By 2018, it will be necessary to calculate the full cost of salaries, direct costs and management costs (not including fixed asset depreciation costs). By 2020, it will be necessary to calculate the full cost of salaries, direct costs, management costs and fixed asset depreciation costs. Based on the actual situation, public service units are allowed to implement the roadmap for public service prices in advance, and ministries, central agencies, and provincial People's Committees, based on the ability to balance the State budget and the ability to pay of beneficiaries, prescribe the roadmap for calculating public service prices for competent authorities to issue or issue according to their authority. Thus, the transfer of hospital fees and tuition fees from the current list of fees and charges is to ensure consistency with the provisions of specialized laws.

PV:Thank you, comrade.

Red River(Perform)