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| Discussion session on the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management at the hall |
Comprehensive amendments to be proposed by 2026
After being discussed in 16 groups with 84 comments, the Draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management (Draft) was discussed by the National Assembly in the hall yesterday morning (November 18). This time, the Government submitted to the National Assembly to amend and supplement the content of 23/63 articles of the current Law on Public Debt Management.
Discussing in groups, many opinions agreed on the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law to fully institutionalize the Party's policies and orientations, arrange and perfect the apparatus of the political system and perfect the legal system, promote decentralization and delegation of power, ensure synchronization in institutional reform, and at the same time remove a number of difficulties and obstacles in the past time.
However, some opinions say that the number of amendments and supplements is quite large, while this law is expected to continue to be comprehensively amended in the 2026 Legislative Program, submitted and approved at the October 2026 session. Therefore, it is recommended that the Government consider amending at this session, and should study carefully to comprehensively amend the law in 2026.
In the report on receiving and explaining the group's discussion opinions, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang explained that 23/63 amended and supplemented articles are closely related and aim to resolve practical difficulties, implement administrative procedure reform, decentralize, delegate power and remove obstacles, promote access to and use of ODA loans and preferential loans.
"The Ministry of Finance will continue to synthesize the opinions of delegates and agencies of the National Assembly in the process of researching and proposing comprehensive amendments to the Law in 2026," said Minister Nguyen Van Thang.
With 9 delegates speaking, the discussion time in the hall about the Draft lasted nearly 1 hour, opinions all agreed on the necessity of amendments and highly appreciated many new proposals in this amendment. "The completion of the law this time is consistent with the requirements of tightening financial and budgetary discipline, strictly controlling public debt, enhancing accountability and meeting the requirements of international economic integration. The Draft demonstrates the great efforts of the drafting agency in making transparent the process of borrowing, using and repaying public debt; at the same time, clarifying the authority of agencies in negotiating, signing and managing ODA loans and foreign preferential loans", commented delegate Nguyen Tam Hung (HCMC).
Sharing the same view with some other delegates on adding the provision that “all Government debt obligations are treated equally”, the delegate from Ho Chi Minh City suggested considering more specific regulations on the scope of “equality”. Because in reality, there are debts that are compulsory, have preferential conditions, or have Government guarantees, so the ranking of priority payments needs to be clearly classified. Adding detailed instructions will avoid conflicts when handling debts due in volatile market conditions.
Consider the responsibilities of commercial banks
Regarding specific contents, one of the issues that delegates are interested in is the new point about lending methods. The draft regulation stipulates that commercial banks will re-lend to public service units and will not bear credit risks; while re-lending to enterprises to invest in priority investment portfolio programs of the State, the lending agency will bear part of the credit risks.
Agreeing with the granting of more authority to commercial banks in re-lending activities, delegate Tam Hung analyzed that the draft requires commercial banks to have an international credit rating equal to or one level lower than the national credit rating. This regulation is necessary, but its feasibility should be considered, because currently, not many Vietnamese commercial banks are rated according to international standards. If kept as is, the risk of lacking authorized units is very high.
Therefore, according to delegates, it is necessary to consider additional research on the application roadmap or a more suitable alternative assessment mechanism.
According to delegate Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap), "allowing policy banks or commercial banks to re-lend to public service units in a way that the re-lending agency does not bear credit risk" is necessary. However, delegate Hoa still has concerns and suggests that the Ministry of Finance study and consider because "re-lending without bearing risk" does not determine the responsibility of credit institutions.
The Dong Thap delegate said that having to take risks when re-lending shows the bank's responsibility to check, monitor and manage the loan source. "It is impossible to lend without supervision. Normally, a commercial bank lends to people for production and business, they also regularly monitor the production and business activities of the people, to see how much profit and loss they make. In this case, re-lending a very large amount of money, this amount of money borrowed from the Government, it is unreasonable not to take credit risks," delegate Pham Van Hoa expressed his opinion and suggested that there be a limit on re-lending.
Also agreeing on separating the State's entrusted capital source from commercial credit activities, delegate Pham Trong Nhan (HCMC) said that when banks do not bear or bear very little credit risk, the motivation to appraise and monitor loans is reduced, and the risk of capital loss is actually transferred mainly to the state budget.
Mr. Nhan suggested that if this mechanism is maintained, the Draft should clearly stipulate the minimum credit risk ratio that re-lending organizations must bear. At the same time, the Government should be assigned to provide detailed guidance on the principles of risk allocation between the budget, re-lending organizations, and borrowers to avoid conflicts with the Law on Credit Institutions and avoid creating risks.
In his explanatory report, on behalf of the Drafting Committee, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang thanked the delegates for their valuable comments. Responding to the delegates' concerns about the re-lending method, the Minister said that the addition of commercial banks, in addition to policy banks under the old Law, when re-lending to public service units aims to abolish the monopoly mechanism of re-lending to public service units of the Vietnam Development Bank and strengthen the mechanism of healthy competition when appraising re-lending, ensuring more prestige and professionalism. Thereby, the quality of appraisal and management of re-lending is improved, helping to limit credit risks for the budget.
The draft law also adds a mechanism for sharing credit risks between the Government and the re-lending agency when re-lending large projects and projects on the State's priority investment list. "The Ministry of Finance plans to report to the Government that the Decree stipulates that commercial banks will bear 10%, while the Government will still bear the majority of 90%, instead of commercial banks not bearing the risk as at present. Thereby, the quality of appraisal and the effectiveness of loan management will be more assured," said the Minister.
According to the Minister, the addition of the regulation that the re-lending amount of a commercial bank subject to credit risk is not included in the total outstanding credit balance for a customer and related parties of the customer in the current Draft Law amendment does not conflict with other regulations on capital safety. The State Bank also agrees with this proposal.
According to the agenda, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management will be approved by the National Assembly on the morning of December 11, the last day of this session.
Yesterday morning, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the Draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business. One of the issues that many delegates were concerned about right from the group discussion was the need to develop a model contract for life insurance, which is currently long and complicated.
The response from the drafting agency (Ministry of Finance) is that Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC of the Ministry has detailed regulations on the basic contents of life and health insurance contracts, which can be considered as model rules and terms. This Circular also stipulates that enterprises must provide insurance buyers with a document summarizing the rules, conditions and terms of insurance. The Ministry of Finance will receive the opinions of delegates to continue reviewing and perfecting the regulations when amending the Law as a whole to enhance the protection of customers' rights.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/hoan-thien-co-che-chia-se-rui-ro-tin-dung-trong-quan-ly-no-cong-d436915.html
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