The government submitted 1 law to amend 7 laws.

Delegates attending the National Assembly meeting, morning of May 17. Photo: QUANG PHUC

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang presented the draft law, saying that regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Law on Bidding, it is noteworthy to amend the provisions on designated bidding and competitive bidding in the direction that the law only stipulates principles and assigns the Government to specify details on these forms in order to create a flexible, proactive, and timely mechanism for the Government to stipulate cases of designated bidding when necessary to speed up the implementation of large, important, and urgent projects.

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Law on Investment under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP Law ), one of the amended contents is to strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority in the direction of decentralization to ministries, provincial People's Councils, and provincial People's Committees to decide on investment policies for PPP projects that were previously under the authority of the Prime Minister to decide on investment policies.

Decentralize to the minister or the chairman of the provincial People's Committee to approve PPP projects under the authority of the National Assembly to decide on policies and decide to terminate PPP project contracts. Decentralize to the minister or the chairman of the provincial People's Committee to decide on the application of the form of investor selection suitable for the project, including the form of investor appointment or special selection...

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Customs Law, the draft amends and supplements regulations on conditions of application and preferential regimes for semiconductor industry enterprises and technology enterprises; adds a new article regulating customs procedures for on-site export activities and assigns the Ministry of Finance to specify this article in detail.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang presented a draft law to amend 7 laws. Photo: QUANG PHUC

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Law on Export Tax and Import Tax : expanding the scope of import tax exemption for imported goods for science and technology development, innovation, and digital transformation such as machinery, equipment, specialized spare parts and supplies directly used for science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Investment Law , it is noteworthy to amend and supplement in the direction of decentralizing the Prime Minister's authority to approve investment policies to the provincial People's Committees for 7 groups of projects (including investment projects requiring resettlement of 10,000 or more people in mountainous areas, 20,000 or more people in other areas; new construction investment projects: airports, airfields, runways of airports, airfields, passenger terminals of international airports, cargo terminals of airports, airfields with a capacity of 1 million tons/year or more; investment projects to build houses, urban areas with a land use scale of 300 hectares or more or a population scale of 50,000 people or more...).

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment, among the amendments is the decentralization of the Prime Minister's authority to ministries, central and local agencies: decentralization of all authority to decide on investment policies and investment decisions on programs and projects of the Prime Minister to ministries, central agencies...

National Assembly on the morning of May 17. Photo: QUANG PHUC

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets, amending a number of regulations to ensure consistency and synchronization with specialized laws such as abolishing regulations on the form of using public assets to pay investors when implementing construction investment projects under the form of BT contracts; amending and supplementing regulations on the use of public assets as gifts, etc.

Examining the content of this draft law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that the committee agreed with the necessity of amending and supplementing 7 laws.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented the report on the review of the draft law. Photo: QUANG PHUC

The Committee recommends that the Government direct relevant agencies to continue to carefully review, closely follow the goal of amending the law, focus on amending and supplementing urgent contents to remove difficulties and obstacles in practice, especially in the field of science and technology activities; to ensure creating favorable and transparent conditions and procedures for businesses, organizations and individuals, at the same time, ensuring strict management requirements, having a transparent and effective post-inspection mechanism, avoiding creating loopholes and taking advantage of policies.

In particular, regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Law on Bidding, the Committee believes that the draft law supplements regulations in the direction of allowing investors and competent persons to base on the scale, nature, and actual conditions of the bidding package and project to choose to apply forms of contractor and investor selection.

This regulation may shorten the time for budget spending units, but it can easily lead to the emergence of a mechanism of asking and giving, taking advantage of policies, assigning contracts, and assigning contracts within a narrow scope to a number of enterprises or to friendly enterprises, making it difficult for small and medium enterprises to access public procurement and participate in public investment projects. Therefore, it is recommended that the Government carefully assess the policy impact, clearly report on the political and practical bases for the National Assembly to consider and decide.

Regarding amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Investment Law, the Government has added provisions to remove difficulties for BOT projects in the road sector with contracts signed before the effective date of the 2020 PPP Law. The Committee recommends that the Government review and ensure the political basis and strict regulations in the draft law; only apply to projects where the cause of difficulties and obstacles is the responsibility of the State, meeting strict and specific conditions, to ensure clarity, consistency, transparency and avoid policy loopholes.

PHAN THAO

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chinh-phu-trinh-1-luat-sua-7-luat-post795625.html