Immediately establish working groups to remove difficulties in implementing the 2% interest rate support package for enterprises, cooperatives, and business households.

On the afternoon of August 17, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai met with the State Bank and ministries on the implementation of the 2% interest rate support package. Photo: VGP/Tran Manh

Reporting at the meeting, Permanent Deputy Governor of the State Bank Dao Minh Tu said that after the Government issued Decree No. 31/2022/ND-CP dated May 20, 2022 on interest rate support from the state budget for loans of enterprises, cooperatives, and business households (total support package of about 40,000 billion VND). On the same day, the State Bank issued Circular No. 30/2022/TT-NHNN guiding commercial banks to support interest rates according to Decree 31.

To widely inform about the interest rate support policy, on May 27, 2022, the State Bank held a conference for the whole industry to disseminate and answer questions related to the policy, thereby unifying the understanding, ensuring the policy is implemented synchronously and consensually nationwide.

Currently, commercial banks have registered plans to support interest rates from the state budget for the entire program and details for each year of 2022 and 2023.

The State Bank has compiled and sent a document to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to carry out procedures to submit to competent authorities for permission to supplement the state budget development investment expenditure estimate to implement interest rate support in 2022 (about 16,035 billion VND) and synthesize and arrange in the state budget estimate for 2023 (about 23,965 billion VND).

At the same time, the State Bank has announced the expected interest rate support limit in 2022 for each commercial bank to quickly implement the program.

Results are limited.

Regarding implementation results, according to a quick report from commercial banks, the loan turnover with interest support reached nearly 4,100 billion VND for nearly 550 customers, the amount of interest supported for customers reached about 1.02 billion VND, the outstanding loan with interest support reached 3,966 billion VND.

Currently, banks have been reviewing the list of customers who meet the conditions for interest rate support and are stepping up the work of guiding customers to complete interest rate support procedures.

According to the State Bank, after nearly 3 months of implementation, the results of interest rate support loans of commercial banks are still limited.

Through preliminary records from reports of commercial banks, some causes and difficulties leading to slow implementation of the policy have emerged: Difficulty in identifying subjects eligible for interest rate support; difficulties arising from the borrowers (for example, many production and business households borrow capital from commercial banks but do not register their business households so they are not eligible for support, etc.); and causes from the commercial banks.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai requested the State Bank to immediately establish working groups to grasp the situation, provide guidance, and remove difficulties for the establishments. Photo: VGP/Tran Manh

Immediately establish working groups to grasp the situation, guide and remove difficulties for the facilities.

At the meeting, after listening to the reports and comments from representatives of the State Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Justice, and the Government Office, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai stated that after 3 months of implementing the interest rate support package, although the State Bank and relevant agencies have tried very hard, the results achieved are very low, with this progress, disbursement is very difficult.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai requested ministries and branches to review regulations related to industries, beneficiaries, loan conditions, etc. "to see if there are any discrepancies? Are they stricter than general regulations?" to promptly adjust or propose competent authorities to review, adjust and supplement accordingly.

Emphasizing the spirit of looking directly at reality to flexibly solve problems arising from reality, implementing disbursement as soon as possible to support businesses in accordance with the law, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the State Bank to proactively grasp the situation from the grassroots level, if difficulties and problems are discovered, promptly have solutions to overcome them according to authority, or propose to competent authorities for consideration and decision.

Accordingly, the Deputy Prime Minister assigned the State Bank to organize a conference next week to receive feedback from commercial banks, and relevant ministries (Planning and Investment, Finance, Justice) to coordinate and send officials to attend to guide and explain to credit institutions.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai assigned the State Bank to soon establish a number of working groups (with the participation of relevant ministries and branches) to conduct a survey of the implementation situation of commercial banks, grasp the issues arising in practice to promptly take measures to handle difficulties and problems of the establishments.

In addition, the State Bank continues to coordinate with relevant agencies, promote information and propaganda work to implement the interest rate support program for enterprises, cooperatives, and business households promptly, effectively, and in accordance with regulations./.