On July 22, at the National Assembly House, the thematic monitoring delegation "Implementation of policies and laws on environmental protection since the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect" worked with the Ministry of Finance. Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan, Head of the monitoring delegation, chaired the meeting.
Reporting to the Monitoring Delegation, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung said that in 3 years (2022 - 2024), the estimated expenditure for environmental protection of the central budget compared to the total annual state budget expenditure will reach 0.096% - 0.092% and 0.084% respectively. For local budgets, these rates are 1.35% - 0.91% - 1.12% respectively.
The state budget development investment capital for environmental protection projects in the 2021-2025 period is estimated at VND 20,908 billion (domestic VND 7,056 billion, foreign VND 13,852 billion). Compared to the 2016-2020 period, this amount increased by 11.75% for ministries and branches and 21.72% for localities. This does not include the cost of collecting, transporting, and treating domestic solid waste, which is part of the local budget expenditure, and is proactively arranged by localities.
Total revenue from environmental protection taxes and fees increased in the 2016-2019 period, especially sharply from 2019 due to tax rate adjustments. In the 2020-2024 period, environmental protection tax revenue decreased due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the policy of reducing tax rates to support people and businesses. The total environmental protection taxes and fees collected in the 2022-2024 period is about VND 141,118 billion; of which taxes are VND 120,668 billion and fees are VND 20,454 billion. "Although these revenues are included in the state budget, the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 has stipulated a separate expenditure item for environmental protection and has gradually increased it," said the Deputy Minister of Finance.
However, according to Deputy Minister Do Thanh Trung, the implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 still reveals a number of difficulties, obstacles, and overlaps, especially the lack of regulations on many new environmental issues, and the lack of consistency, leading to the need to continue issuing revised and supplemented documents.
At the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Ta Dinh Thi - Head of the Working Group of the Supervisory Delegation requested the Ministry of Finance to clarify many contents.
“The Ministry of Finance said that regular budget expenditure for the environment has ensured no less than 1% of total state budget expenditure. However, in reality, the allocation and implementation of the budget is still slow; many annual budgets are canceled, why?”, Mr. Thi asked. The monitoring team also said that it is necessary to summarize, evaluate, and make specific recommendations to increase investment attraction from the private economic sector for waste treatment infrastructure, especially domestic solid waste and urban domestic wastewater.
Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan emphasized the role of the financial sector in environmental protection. The allocation of development investment capital, fiscal policies, and financial instruments for environmental protection not only ensures priority for the environment, but also requires proper, sufficient, and effective spending.
“It is not just a matter of 'how much to spend', but more importantly 'how to spend' to create a real change in this work,” the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly stated, and suggested that the Ministry of Finance focus on studying and amending laws on taxes and fees according to market principles, ensuring that polluters pay commensurate with the level of harm, while at the same time having stronger incentive policies for investment activities in clean technology, recycling, reuse and circular economy; proactively grasp, guide and remove "bottlenecks" in policies and laws.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chi-cho-bao-ve-moi-truong-khong-chi-bao-nhieu-ma-quan-trong-hon-la-chi-nhu-the-nao-post804890.html
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