State budget 2021: Deficit 4% of GDP

At the meeting, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, authorized by the Prime Minister, reported on the state budget revenue and expenditure tasks in 2021.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc affirmed that in 2021, the state budget expenditure will be proactively and strictly managed. In which, the viewpoint of focusing on priority and making the highest efforts for the work of preventing and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring social security and stabilizing people's lives has been thoroughly implemented.

Ministries, central and local agencies have seriously implemented budget expenditures in line with assigned estimates; reviewed and cut at least 50% of conference and domestic and international travel expenses, and saved an additional 10% of other remaining regular expenditures in 2021; and recovered regular expenditures that were not really necessary and slow to be implemented to focus resources on preventing and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc frankly stated that, in implementation, the disbursement rate of public investment capital is still low; the organization and implementation of some social security policies is still slow; the amount of funds transferred to the following year is still large; the management and use of state budget funds in some ministries, branches and localities are still erroneous; and compliance with the deadline for reporting settlements has not been ensured in accordance with regulations.

Accordingly, the final settlement of state budget revenue and expenditure in 2021 is as follows: Total state budget revenue is 1,358,084 billion VND; total state budget expenditure is 1,701,713 billion VND; state budget deficit is 343,670 billion VND, equivalent to 4% of GDP (including: Central budget deficit is 318,870 billion VND, equivalent to 3.7% of GDP; local budget deficit is 24,800 billion VND, equivalent to 0.3% of GDP).

By the end of 2021, the total public debt was VND 3,616,484 billion - equal to 42.65% of GDP. The Government's direct debt repayment obligation compared to state budget revenue was 21.47%. Thus, the public debt indicators in 2021 are within the limits allowed by the National Assembly .

Representative of the auditing agency, Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that many opinions believe that, despite being heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state budget revenue settlement achieved the above results, in addition to the reason of careful budgeting, the revenue from real estate, securities, crude oil increased, etc., which is a great effort of the entire political system, people, and businesses.

However, there are also many opinions that in 2021, many policies on tax and fee exemption and reduction were implemented, but the increase in state budget revenue in 2021 was very high due to the fact that the budget estimates for some revenue items were not accurate, such as the land use fee revenue estimates for many years were lower than the previous year's figures. Some opinions suggest that, in the context of difficulty in accurately determining state budget revenue estimates, it is necessary to study and amend the State Budget Law to have mechanisms and policies for strict management, effective use, and to avoid spreading, losing, and wasting the increase in state budget revenue.

Regarding the state budget expenditure settlement, according to the Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh, the majority of opinions said that the state budget expenditure settlement (including the amount of expenditure transferred from the previous year) was very low due to the inaccurate budget preparation, slow disbursement of public investment, and failure to organize the implementation of national target programs in 2021.

"Canceling the budget and transferring large resources causes waste of resources and affects the implementation of the state's economic and social security policies," said Chairman Le Quang Manh.

The Finance and Budget Committee proposed that the National Assembly assign the Government to direct ministries and local branches to continue reviewing expenditures transferred from 2021 to 2022. The Government and the State Audit are responsible for the content, information, and data of the 2021 state budget settlement to ensure accuracy, honesty, completeness, and compliance with legal regulations...

NGUYEN THAO

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