Personnel decisions, salary increases and policies of the National Assembly at the 7th Session

There are few sessions where the National Assembly decides to adjust the working program as many times as the 7th Session, to supplement, consider and decide on a number of urgent issues when they are deemed ripe, clear and receive high consensus, both in terms of legislative work as well as deciding on important issues. That is also why the session's duration increased to 27.5 working days, instead of 26 days as originally planned.

7th Session, 15th National Assembly

First of all, it is necessary to affirm that the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly has the largest volume of legislative content at a single session since the beginning of the term. The National Assembly passed 11 laws, 21 resolutions and gave first opinions on 11 other draft laws.

For the first time, the Government proposed and the National Assembly agreed to adjust the effective date of three laws related to real estate (approved by the National Assembly at the 6th Session and the 5th Extraordinary Session) earlier so that the laws can come into effect sooner, because as all opinions said, businesses and people are waiting.

Specifically, while the session was taking place, the Government reported on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15, the Housing Law No. 27/2023/QH15, the Real Estate Business Law No. 29/2023/QH15, the Law on Credit Institutions No. 32/2024/QH15 and was approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee to submit to the National Assembly to add to the 2024 Law and Ordinance Making Program, as well as to consider and approve it according to the shortened process and procedures at one session.

With the majority of National Assembly deputies voting in favor of passing the draft law, the National Assembly allows the Land Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law to take effect from August 1, 2024 (except Clause 10, Article 255 and Clause 4, Article 260 of the Land Law to take effect from January 1, 2025).

This is expected to contribute to the early implementation of innovative contents, the release of land resources, timely resolution and resolute handling of existing problems and inadequacies pointed out in the process of summarizing the implementation of the three laws and promoting the advantages of progressive policies and regulations in the above laws; creating more favorable conditions for businesses and people in exercising their rights as land users, protecting the rights of people whose land is recovered, promoting participation in real estate business activities, housing development, etc.

A series of issues were discussed frankly and responsibly by National Assembly delegates at the 7th Session.

Personnel work has been carried out strictly in accordance with Party regulations and State laws. The National Assembly has elected the President, Chairman of the National Assembly, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee; approved the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Security ; approved members of the National Defense and Security Council, and at the same time carried out other personnel work within its authority and has achieved high consensus and unanimity among National Assembly deputies.

Another policy that has received special attention from National Assembly deputies as well as voters and people nationwide is the implementation of salary reform; adjustment of pensions, social insurance benefits, preferential benefits for people with meritorious services and social benefits. This is also the content proposed by the Government and agreed by the National Assembly, put on the agenda for timely consideration and decision while the session is in progress.

Through the Joint Resolution of the session, the National Assembly resolved to fully implement two contents of salary reform in the enterprise sector in accordance with Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW, including: adjusting the regional minimum wage according to the provisions of the Labor Code (an average increase of 6% applied from July 1, 2024); regulating the salary mechanism for state-owned enterprises (applied from January 1, 2025).

Regarding the public sector, the National Assembly emphasized implementing salary reform in a gradual, careful, and certain manner, ensuring feasibility and contributing to improving the lives of salary earners; at the same time, assigning the Government to implement the contents that are clear and have sufficient conditions for implementation, including: perfecting the salary increase regime; supplementing the bonus regime; regulating funding sources for implementing the salary regime; perfecting the salary and income management mechanism.

The notable point and considered as "satisfied social mood" as said by Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, is the adjustment of the basic salary from 1.8 million VND/month to 2.34 million VND/month (increase of 30%) from July 1, 2024. At the same time, the current pension and social insurance benefits (June 2024) are also adjusted to increase by 15%. Similarly, preferential allowances for meritorious people and social benefits are also increased compared to before, increasing by 35.7% and 38.9% respectively.

Also at the session, the National Assembly decided to extend the application of 8% VAT, a 2% reduction compared to the current rate, for a number of groups of goods and services for another 6 months, until the end of 2024, although according to impact assessment, this is expected to reduce budget revenue in the second half of this year by about 24,000 billion VND.

Because, as experts have commented, the budget is currently in deficit but that money is not lost but remains with the people, serving their lives, business and production. Reducing VAT by 2% will help people save on expenses and living expenses, bringing about psychological impacts, helping to stimulate demand and increase consumption. The above policy is to ease the people's burden and nurture revenue sources.

National Assembly deputies vote to pass draft laws and resolutions at the 7th Session

In addition, the National Assembly agreed to adjust a number of contents related to the investment policy of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period to contribute to overcoming difficulties and problems arising from practice. The ultimate goal of the policy is nothing other than to speed up the disbursement progress and program implementation results so that people can soon enjoy meaningful and humane policies of the Party and State...

As National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man affirmed in his closing speech, although there were adjustments to the program and content, including urgent, difficult, and complicated issues, it still ensured smoothness, caution, flexibility, and efficiency in management and high consensus and unanimity among National Assembly deputies.

Source: https://vov.vn/chinh-tri/quyet-dinh-nhan-su-tang-luong-va-cac-quyet-sach-cua-quoc-hoi-tai-ky-hop-thu-7-post1104741.vov