The Prime Minister hopes Ho Chi Minh City will 'share the hardships' with the rest of the country.
The Prime Minister requested clarification regarding the allocation of budgets to localities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and expressed his hope that these cities would share the burden with the rest of the country.
At the regular meeting on October 29th, the Government devoted considerable time to discussing the public investment situation as well as the plan for allocating investment capital for the 2016-2020 period and the plan for 2017.
Regarding this matter, the Prime Minister requested clarification on the information related to the allocation of budgets to localities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
The leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee mentioned the difficulties arising from the reduction in the percentage of the budget that the city is allowed to retain from 23% to 18% in the near future, and proposed reducing it to 21% in the short term.
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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hopes Ho Chi Minh City will "share the hardships" with the rest of the country. Photo:VGP |
The Prime Minister acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh City has made many efforts to exceed its revenue targets in the past period. However, the budget allocation ratio has been calculated very carefully.
"I've been very hesitant and thoughtful about this. The central government is also trying to pay attention to Ho Chi Minh City. The ministries are working very hard on the calculations; 1% of Ho Chi Minh City has a significant impact on the whole country," the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister pointed out that although the percentage has decreased, the absolute number has increased. Not to mention that Ho Chi Minh City has received central government investment in 5 ODA projects totaling nearly 100 trillion VND, as well as flood control projects and the construction of two large hospitals worth tens of trillions of VND. Da Nang is in a similar situation.
In addition, there are many revenue sources, such as land revenue, that are entirely retained by the localities. Therefore, the Prime Minister requested that these be made public, transparent, and clearly explained to the public to avoid the situation of "seeing the trees but not the forest."
At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasized the spirit of unity and cooperation among localities, levels, and sectors to overcome the current difficult budgetary period, especially in 2017 and 2018. Along with that, not only relying on the budget, but also mobilizing other resources such as social contributions and ODA are necessary.
“Ho Chi Minh City still faces many problems such as traffic congestion, dust, flooding, etc., but we hope the city will try to find additional funding sources. The whole country still has many regions like Ca Mau, Lang Son, Cao Bang… where people are facing great difficulties, lacking roads, and unable to produce their own goods. We will listen and try to find funding for the city; we hope the city's leaders and people will understand and share the hardships with the rest of the country,” the Prime Minister shared.
According to some economic experts, generally speaking, local government revenue falls into three main groups: 1) Revenues generated locally but payable 100% to the central government (including import and export taxes, value-added tax, and special consumption tax on imported goods, etc.); 2) Local revenues retained 100% (including taxes and fees related to land and housing, revenue from lottery activities, resource taxes excluding oil and gas exploration and exploitation activities, etc.); 3) Revenues shared proportionally between the central and local budgets (including value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, etc.). Therefore, the "retained budget" percentage that the public is concerned about is only a portion of the local government's budget. |
According to VNE
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