Ministry of Finance seeks opinions on comprehensive revision of the State Budget Law

National workshop to collect opinions on comprehensive revision of the State Budget Law (NSNN) - Photo: VGP/HT

Comprehensive revision needed

Deputy Minister of Finance Ho Sy Hung said that the comprehensive revision of the State Budget Law is an extremely important task, of strategic significance to the management and use of national finance and state budget, contributing to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals in the new period, accompanying the whole country into a new era.

Deputy Minister of Finance Ho Sy Hung speaks at the Workshop - Photo: VGP/HT

After more than 8 years of implementation, the 2015 State Budget Law has made an important contribution to the effective and transparent management and use of the State budget, making an important contribution to the socio -economic development of the country. However, in the new context, with changes in the economy, society and international situation, the Law has revealed a number of limitations and inadequacies that need to be amended and supplemented to suit the reality and meet development requirements.

Comprehensively amending the State Budget Law is an extremely important task, of strategic significance to the management and use of national finance and state budget, contributing to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals in the new period, accompanying the whole country into a new era - the era of striving for strong, prosperous development of the nation and carrying out a revolution in the organization of the apparatus towards the goal of strengthening the construction of a streamlined, effective, efficient and effective apparatus.

Implement the Conclusions of the Central Executive Committee and the Politburo (Conclusion No. 97/KL-TW on socio-economic development in 2024-2025; No. 126-KL/TW, No. 127-KL/TW on implementing research and proposing to continue to reorganize the apparatus of the political system; No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation), especially Conclusion No. 93/KL-TW of the Politburo on continuing to innovate the mechanism of decentralization of management and allocation of the State budget to ensure the leading role of the Central Government and the initiative of the local Government, relevant agencies and units.

The National Assembly has a Resolution assigning the Government to "direct relevant ministries and branches to continue studying comprehensive amendments to the State Budget Law and report to the National Assembly at the 9th Session according to the conclusions of the Politburo and resolutions of the National Assembly".

Accordingly, the Government and the Prime Minister have assigned the Ministry of Finance to urgently study and comprehensively amend the 2015 State Budget Law, propose to add it to the 2025 Law-making Program according to shortened procedures to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 9th Session (May 2025).

Implementing the Government's assignment, the Ministry of Finance has issued a document requesting ministries, central and local agencies to evaluate and propose comprehensive amendments and supplements to the State Budget Law as a basis for developing the dossier of the State Budget Law (amended), and sending it to ministries, central and local agencies for written comments; at the same time, it has organized a workshop to directly collect comments from a number of localities. On that basis, the Ministry of Finance has reviewed and continued to complete the dossier of the State Budget Law (amended) to send to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal.

The draft Law on State Budget (amended) is built on the viewpoint of: Fully institutionalizing the policies and orientations of the Party and the State; legalizing clear issues that are consistent with reality; regulating issues of principle, ensuring consistency and unity among legal provisions; promoting decentralization and delegation of power, creating proactiveness and flexibility, enhancing the autonomy of localities in the spirit of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"; inheriting and promoting the achievements of the current Law; amending and supplementing regulations that are no longer suitable to remove difficulties and obstacles.

Ms. Kristina Buende - Head of Cooperation Department of the European Union (EU) Delegation - Photo: VGP/HT

Completing the legal framework helps sustainable and comprehensive growth

From an international perspective, Ms. Kristina Buende - Head of the Cooperation Department of the European Union (EU) Delegation assessed: Vietnam is facing a very important moment and the amendment of the State Budget Law is an important step to bring Vietnam quickly into a new stage of development. To achieve the desired goal when amending the Law, we need to have a strategic vision for the future because the modern economy requires a solid legal basis to meet the requirements of economic activities.

According to Ms. Kristina Buende, in every country, the State Budget Law is considered the basic law for economic development, infrastructure construction, and FDI attraction. With its development experience, from lessons of success and failure, the EU will actively support Vietnam in this important project. The EU is fully confident that with a law built with a spirit of strong innovation, modernity, and legal perfection, it will help Vietnam grow sustainably, develop comprehensively and inclusively.

Mr. Vu Duc Hoi - Director of the State Budget Department (Ministry of Finance) said the draft Law on State Budget (amended) - Photo: VGP/HT

Summarizing the revised contents of the draft Law on State Budget, Mr. Vu Duc Hoi - Director of the Department of State Budget (Ministry of Finance) said that the draft Law on State Budget (amended) focuses on solving a number of key issues. That is, innovating the mechanism of decentralizing revenue sources between the central budget and local budgets in the direction of strengthening the leading role of the central budget, while creating conditions for local budgets to be more autonomous and proactive in mobilizing and using resources for socio-economic development.

In addition, the draft reviews and amends regulations on decentralization of budget expenditure tasks in the direction of clearly defining the responsibilities and powers of each level in using the budget, prioritizing resource allocation for key tasks, especially science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation.

Regarding decentralization and delegation of authority in budget preparation and implementation, the draft Law increases the authority of the Government in deciding to adjust the revenue and expenditure estimates of a number of ministries, central and local agencies, but does not increase the borrowing level or state budget deficit, and increases the authority of People's Committees at all levels in localities to decide to adjust local budget expenditure estimates, and then report back to competent authorities.

The handling of increases and decreases in revenue and expenditure compared to the estimate during the implementation of the State budget is amended in the direction of: removing the regulation on priority order when allocating the increase in revenue and remaining estimated expenditures of the budget level, and at the same time expanding the scope of use of this resource (supplementing the increase in budget reserves and other necessary tasks that have not been arranged in the next year's budget estimate)... to improve efficiency and timeliness in resolving arising issues.

The draft also reviews, cuts, and simplifies administrative procedures, optimizes processes and procedures in budget preparation, execution, and settlement.

According to Mr. Vu Duc Hoi, the draft Law on State Budget (amended) has removed procedures related to the process of building and announcing the annual and 3-year budget revenue and expenditure inspection numbers; the process of building and reporting the 3-year financial - state budget plan; the order and requirements for making expenditure estimates, especially for the fields of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation... Thereby, creating convenience for both financial agencies and budget-using units, shortening the time for synthesizing and making budget settlements.

Speaking at the workshop, representatives of the Department of Finance of many localities expressed their high consensus on the comprehensive revision of the State Budget Law, with many important and strong innovations, in the spirit of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility". Especially the innovations in the mechanism of decentralizing revenue sources, increasing the initiative of localities; clearly defining the responsibilities and powers of each level in budget use; increasing the authority of People's Committees at all levels in adjusting expenditure estimates...

According to localities, the draft has updated and removed many local obstacles in the implementation process. For example, removing obstacles in advance of financial reserve funds, expanding the expenditure content of the budget reserve fund, eliminating the need to make a 3-year financial plan, removing regulations on handing over inspection numbers, etc.

Mr. Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/bo-tai-chinh-lay-y-kien-sua-doi-toan-dien-luat-ngan-sach-nha-nuoc-102250411142155291.htm