Focus on collecting the right amount, collecting enough, cutting unnecessary expenses

During the discussion session on the afternoon of October 31 at the Hall, National Assembly delegates shared many opinions on the Government's report on the implementation of the State budget in 2014, the State budget estimate plan and the Central budget allocation plan for 2015.

Delegate Tran Du Lich proposed to boldly cut 10% of this expenditure in 2015.

Continuing the topic of interest in the discussion session on the socio-economic situation, many delegates emphasized the issue of public debt, considering this an important and central issue that requires strong measures in the 2014 and 2015 budget.

Delegate Bui Duc Thu (Lai Chau) commented that from now until the end of the year, the pressure on spending will be very high, so it is necessary to strictly manage it so that it does not exceed the budget estimate. At the same time, the increased revenue of 63,700 billion VND will be used to compensate, accelerate the implementation of urgent projects, serve development, and pay off debts, and reduce public debt.

In the long term, it is necessary to restructure debt towards increasing medium and long-term loans, resolutely using a tight fiscal policy. Solutions to increase revenue must also be very cautious, focusing on collecting the right amount of revenue, avoiding losses as well as negative impacts on production and business.

Meanwhile, delegate Tran Du Lich (HCMC) expressed his opinion on public debt: The volume and ability to repay debt are issues that need attention, but more importantly, the effectiveness of loans. How to prevent ineffective investment loans that cause losses.

“Public debt safety is very important, but it needs to be considered according to the cash flow formula, the ratio of annual debt maturity compared to budget revenue. If it is not balanced, regular expenditure must be cut. This is something that must be calculated very carefully because it can lead to paralysis of the apparatus as has happened in some countries,” said delegate Tran Du Lich.

The high increase in regular expenditure is also an issue that many delegates pointed out as a major cause of the difficulty in balancing the budget, leading to the situation of "not making enough to eat, having to borrow money". Delegate Tran Du Lich proposed to boldly cut 10% of this expenditure in 2015. Deducting salaries and social allowances, focus on cutting expenses for seminars, tours, receptions, ceremonies... from the central to local levels.

Some other opinions say that regular expenditures reaching a rate of nearly 70% are quite large. Meanwhile, other expenditures are not meeting the needs, which needs to be calculated and carefully reviewed to focus on key expenditures and achieve higher efficiency.

The deficit target of 5% of GDP in 2015 also received much attention. While there were opinions suggesting that this figure should be reduced to 4.5% in the coming years, many delegates also supported this proposal of the Government.

These delegates said that reducing the budget deficit would make it difficult to achieve many important goals, and would lack resources for investment, debt repayment, and many other urgent matters. “Do not let many policies be proposed but there is no source of funding for implementation as has happened before,” said delegate Than Van Khoa (Bac Giang).

The majority of delegates agreed with the Government's policy on salary in 2015. Many delegates suggested that there should be a roadmap to carefully calculate the regulations on salary scales and tables for the whole society. If the difficulties are temporary, then we can consider providing equal subsidies. Because increasing the minimum wage will put pressure on the budget and may not be fair or achieve the right goal in the social security problem.

According to chinhphu.vn