Continuing the 46th session, on the afternoon of June 9, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on receiving, explaining, and revising the draft Law on State Budget (amended).
The report summarizes the acceptance, explanation and revision of the draft Law on State Budget (amended) of the Government, stating that, based on the opinions of National Assembly deputies discussing in groups and halls, the review opinions of the Economic and Financial Committee, and representatives of the Law and Justice Committee, the Government has accepted a number of contents and changes compared to the plan the Government submitted to the National Assembly.
Specifically, implementing the policy of breakthrough in science, technology, innovation and digital transformation development according to Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW and reorganizing the apparatus, building a two-level local government model, the draft Law on the following contents has been absorbed and revised: Synthesizing budget estimates, implementing the state budget, decentralizing provincial and commune budgets for the fields of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, effective from July 1, 2025.
In addition, to promptly and proactively use increased revenue sources and save expenditures compared to the remaining budget estimates and expenditure estimates of the budget level, the draft Law stipulates that the National Assembly decentralizes to the Government the management and operation of increased revenue sources compared to the remaining budget estimates and expenditure estimates, ensuring efficiency and reporting to the National Assembly Standing Committee on implementation results...
According to the Summary Report on opinions on the content of receiving, explaining and revising the draft Law on State Budget (amended) of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee, regarding the content on the authority of the National Assembly stipulated in Article 19, the draft Law removes the provision on the authority of the National Assembly to decide on the estimate and allocation of the central budget in each field.
In the Report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law, the Government proposed to keep it as the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly.
The majority of opinions in the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee proposed to keep the current regulations for 3 reasons.
Firstly, in principle, the decision on the state budget must be consistent with the country's socio-economic development goals and plans, including the development goals of each sector and field.
According to current regulations, the National Assembly decides on the state budget estimate and allocates the central budget to 13 sectors and fields in accordance with the requirements of resource allocation for the country's comprehensive development according to the Party Congress Resolution.
This regulation is necessary and also serves as a basis for the National Assembly to supervise the effective use of tax money contributed by the people.
Second, according to current regulations, the National Assembly only decides on total levels according to fields, not on details for each spending task.
The current law stipulates that ministries, branches and localities, according to their authority, will decide on specific spending tasks, including adjusting the budget according to the provisions of Article 53 of the State Budget Law. Therefore, currently, the decision and adjustment of detailed tasks has been strongly decentralized and is not "rigid."
Third, the current regulations are also consistent with international practice and have been implemented for over 20 years without any problems.
Along with that, the draft Law amends the Government's authority to adjust the state budget estimate compared to the current State Budget Law, thereby transferring the authority of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee to the Government to decide to adjust the estimate, adjust the structure of development investment expenditure, regular expenditure or adjust the expenditure areas decided by the National Assembly.
The Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee proposed not to amend as proposed by the Government, because keeping the current Law is to ensure compliance with the Constitution: According to the provisions of the Constitution and current laws on the state budget, the National Assembly has the authority to decide on the state budget estimate.
Accordingly, when there is a change requiring adjustment of the budget decided by the National Assembly, the task of adjusting the budget falls under the authority of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee.
The draft Law assigning the Government to adjust the budget estimates between ministries, branches, localities, the structure of regular expenditures, investment expenditures, adjust the borrowing level, local budget deficit, and adjust the spending areas decided by the National Assembly is essentially a "re-decision" of the state budget estimate, changing the state budget estimate decided by the National Assembly.
This leads to the National Assembly's decision on the state budget estimate being only a formality, especially not ensuring compliance with the principle "Which agency decides, that agency adjusts."
According to the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee, in fact, the current regulations have completely ensured the rationality, flexibility, and initiative in decentralization, thereby decentralizing to the maximum extent possible to the Government and the Prime Minister, ensuring flexibility in management. At the same time, keeping the current regulations ensures the correct functions, tasks, and positions of each agency in the state apparatus...
Therefore, on the basis of careful consideration and multi-dimensional review, to ensure that decentralization and delegation of power are consistent with the functions and tasks assigned according to the Constitution and current laws, and at the same time, to ensure timeliness in handling tasks of adjusting budget estimates arising between National Assembly sessions, the Economic and Financial Committee proposes to amend in the direction that the National Assembly decentralizes and authorizes the National Assembly Standing Committee to adjust the state budget revenue and expenditure estimates between ministries, central agencies and some localities but does not increase the total borrowing and state budget deficit as decided by the National Assembly.
Also at the meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee reviewed and decided to allocate and adjust the estimates and plans for public investment from the central budget in 2022 and 2023, completing investment procedures; adjusting the capital source of 70% of consular fees to be left to invest in Vietnamese representative agencies abroad.
HA (according to Vietnam+)Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/phan-bo-ngan-sach-trung-uong-phu-hop-voi-muc-tieu-phat-trien-nganh-linh-vuc-413647.html
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