Closing of the 44th Session of the National Assembly Standing Committee

Special session marks a period of strong transformation in the organizational apparatus

In his closing remarks, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man stated that after 9 days of active and urgent work, the 44th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee had completed 48 groups of contents, including the content of amending the Constitution, 24 draft laws and 11 draft resolutions. This is the session with the largest number of contents ever.

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man delivers closing speech. Photo: Ho Long

The National Assembly Chairman highly appreciated the Government in preparing documents and content to ensure they are sent to the Nationalities Council and National Assembly agencies for review and the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments.

The National Assembly Chairman suggested that after this session, the Government continue to urge ministries, branches and agencies to work urgently and continuously to prepare the remaining contents, especially the draft laws with different opinions, to ensure complete documentation.

Due to the huge workload, the National Assembly Chairman requested the National Assembly agencies, the National Assembly Standing Committee, and the Government to be proactive, make greater efforts, exchange and discuss thoroughly to ensure the quality of the draft laws submitted to the Session. The National Assembly Office coordinates with agencies and Hanoi City to prepare conditions for the Ninth Session, which is scheduled to take place in 37 days, opening on May 5 and closing on June 30.

The National Assembly is promoting digital transformation by improving and adding many new features to the National Assembly App 2.0 and using a number of virtual assistants. The National Assembly Chairman believes that the upcoming Ninth Session will mark the first step of the digital National Assembly and innovation in the content of the National Assembly App 2.0.

Emphasizing that the Ninth Session will be a special session, not only in terms of time scale and content, but also of great political and legal significance, marking a period of strong transformation in the organizational apparatus, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that the Government continue to closely coordinate with the National Assembly agencies to thoroughly prepare in all aspects, ensuring the quality of the contents presented at the Session in order to achieve the highest consensus, contributing to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 11th Central Conference, 13th tenure.

View of the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

Ensuring the leading role of the central budget, enhancing the initiative of local budgets

Previously, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, continuing the meeting program, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on State Budget (amended).

Presenting the Draft Law on State Budget (amended), Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang stated that the draft Law consists of 7 chapters and 76 articles. Accordingly, it stipulates the establishment, implementation, audit, settlement, disclosure, and supervision of the state budget; the tasks and powers of relevant agencies, organizations, units, and individuals in the field of state budget.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai chaired the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

The draft Law stipulates that the outstanding loan balance of local governments is reduced from 3 local groups to 2 local groups and increases the outstanding loan balance compared to current regulations; adds the principle of prioritizing state budget expenditure allocation for science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation; and stipulates the fund to perform this task.

The draft Law also adds 1 article on the duties and powers of the Prime Minister, regulating the development of socio-economic development plans and state budget estimates for the following year; fundamentally changing the method of dividing revenues from corporate income tax, personal income tax, special consumption tax, and environmental protection. Adding regulations on budget reserves allocated from increased revenue sources and remaining expenditure estimates of the budget level...

Presenting the Preliminary Review Report of the Law Project, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai stated that the draft Law supplements regulations on funds to perform tasks of science, technology development, innovation and digital transformation according to Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo and removes regulations on conditions for charter capital support when the Fund "has independent financial capacity; has revenue sources and expenditure tasks that do not coincide with the revenue sources and expenditure tasks of the state budget"; removes the regulation "not supporting operating expenses for Funds".

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented the Preliminary Review Report of the draft Law. Photo: Ho Long

The Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee proposed to maintain the principles according to current regulations (no operating funding and conditions when supplementing charter capital for Funds according to current regulations). To implement the Party's policy in Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo, only regulations on funding arrangement (including support for charter capital and operating costs) were added and no conditions were attached when supplementing charter capital that "revenue sources and expenditure tasks must not coincide with the revenue sources and expenditure tasks of the state budget" for funds performing the tasks of developing science, technology, innovation and digital transformation according to the provisions of specialized laws.

Regarding the state budget reserve (Article 10), the Standing Committee of the Committee basically agrees with the Government's Proposal to supplement spending tasks from the state budget reserve for national reserve expenditure; urgent and extraordinary foreign affairs tasks of the State sharing the reduced revenue for investment estimates under the public-private partnership method to ensure consistency with the provisions of the law on investment under the public-private partnership method and the Law on National Reserves.

As for the arrangement for other necessary tasks for which the budget has been arranged but is not sufficient, it is recommended to consider, because the adjustment of the budget and the addition of the budget have been stipulated in this law and there are procedures, order and authority to carry out the addition of the budget and the adjustment of the budget for tasks for which the budget arrangement is not sufficient.

Besides, the majority of opinions believe that increasing the reserve level to a maximum of 5% is not appropriate, therefore, it is proposed to keep it as prescribed in the current State Budget Law.

The National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the process of preparing the draft Law dossier and the preliminary examination process of the Economic and Financial Committee and the National Assembly agencies.

Concluding the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai stated that the Government should take into account the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee and agencies, including continuing to review to fully institutionalize the Party's policies, perfecting policies and laws on the budget; ensuring that the provisions of the law comply with the Constitution, are consistent and consistent with the laws and resolutions issued by the National Assembly. At the same time, review the provisions on the application of the law and the provisions on implementation to ensure feasibility, no problems and compliance with international practices.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly also noted that the amendment of the Law needs to ensure the removal and resolution of current difficulties and obstacles, create breakthroughs to remove bottlenecks to serve the development of science and technology, innovation, digital transformation and promote growth to achieve the set goals; ensure the leading role of the central budget, enhance the initiative of local budgets associated with the decentralization of tasks and responsibilities of all levels of government; improve the efficiency of management and use of the state budget.

Minh Trang

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/be-mac-phien-hop-thu-44-cua-uy-ban-thuong-vu-quoc-hoi-post411778.html