Will review and balance to determine the most appropriate local budget capital level.

Discussing the investment policy of the National Target Program on new rural areas, sustainable poverty reduction, and socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas until 2035, many National Assembly deputies were concerned about the ability to arrange counterpart capital of localities and suggested that it is necessary to stipulate a reasonable counterpart capital ratio to ensure feasibility.

Should restructure capital sources

According to the Government 's Submission, the total resources mobilized to implement the Program for the 2026 - 2030 period are expected to be at least VND 1.23 trillion. Of which, the central budget directly supports about VND 100,000 billion, accounting for 8%; local budget capital at all levels is about VND 400,000 billion, accounting for 33%; capital combined from national target programs, other programs and projects is about VND 360,000 billion, accounting for 29%.

National Assembly Delegate Ho Thi Minh ( Quang Tri ) speaks. Photo: Ho Long

Concerned about the ability to arrange local counterpart funds and mobilize from the community for disadvantaged localities, ethnic minority and mountainous areas, National Assembly Delegate Ho Thi Minh (Quang Tri) said that the central capital ratio only accounts for 8% of the total capital to implement the program, while the local budget capital accounts for 33%, which is very difficult for localities, especially the "core poor" localities, the Central and Central Highlands provinces that are still receiving subsidies from the central government.

Delegate Ho Thi Minh suggested considering restructuring capital sources and exempting counterpart funding for poor communes and areas frequently affected by floods and natural disasters such as the Central and Central Highlands regions, to ensure the Program is truly feasible and humane.

National Assembly Deputy Ha Sy Huan ( Thai Nguyen ) also said that the capital structure for implementing the Program shows that the proportion of the central budget is not commensurate with the leading role, while the local counterpart rate is quite high. This will create a financial burden on the locality, creating great pressure for disadvantaged provinces, especially ethnic minority and mountainous areas with high poverty rates.

National Assembly Deputy Ha Sy Huan (Thai Nguyen). Photo: Ho Long

Delegate Ha Sy Huan pointed out that the current core poor areas of our country are mainly ethnic minority areas. The budget capacity of localities is often small in scale, the proportion of counterpart budget allocation is still high, not enough to "bear" the proportion as proposed in the draft Resolution. The delegate suggested reviewing and clarifying the ability to balance the central budget and considering adjusting the capital structure to ensure that the central budget plays a leading role in both proportion and leadership in implementing the Program. Accordingly, increase the proportion of the central budget in the total state budget to a reasonable level.

Concentrated capital allocation, clear criteria

Regarding the allocation principles in Clause 4, Article 1 of the draft Resolution, delegate Ha Sy Huan highly agreed with the principle of prioritizing central budget investment capital for core poor areas, ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas so that ethnic minority areas can have a better life and escape poverty. In addition, the delegate also said that these principles are still general in nature, without quantitative criteria, so it is difficult to avoid spreading and leveling capital allocation when organizing implementation. The delegate suggested that it is necessary to quantify and delimit beneficiaries to concentrate resources, ensuring the principle of prioritizing more important tasks and goals.

Also agreeing with the principle orientation of allocating central capital to support program implementation, National Assembly Deputy Hoang Quoc Khanh (Lai Chau) emphasized that it is necessary to ensure the principle of concentration, not spreading out and giving priority to localities with many difficulties, in order to thoroughly resolve key and urgent tasks, creating clear and sustainable changes.

National Assembly Delegate Hoang Quoc Khanh (Lai Chau). Photo: Ho Long

The delegate emphasized that the allocation of resources must be based on the level of shortage, practical needs and capital absorption capacity of each locality, ensuring investment is focused and key, avoiding the situation of "spreading the curtain" leading to prolongation, inefficiency, and failure to resolve basic bottlenecks. In particular, the nature of the National Target Program requires concentrated investment to solve and handle problems such as multidimensional poverty, lack of essential infrastructure, and specific problems of ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

The implementation of the 3 National Target Programs for the period 2021 - 2025 shows that localities that allocate large enough concentrated capital have achieved clear results, with progress and quality both improved. Therefore, delegate Hoang Quoc Khanh suggested that capital allocation criteria should be designed based on factors such as the level of difficulty of the locality, the rate of poor households, progress and the number of unmet criteria of the program. This will be an objective basis to ensure fairness, efficiency and create motivation for localities to move forward.

Delegates attending the meeting. Photo: Pham Thang

Explaining and clarifying the issue of capital and capital structure for implementing the Program, Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Duc Thang said that the Program has a scope and scale covering the whole country, almost covering all the content and tasks of socio-economic development in rural areas, with priority given to ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Acknowledging that the initial allocation of 100,000 billion VND from the central budget is limited, the Minister of Agriculture and Environment affirmed that in order to achieve the goals and tasks of the Program, during the operation process, the Government will continue to balance the central budget to report to the National Assembly for additional priority in accordance with actual conditions.

Regarding the proportion of capital from local budgets in the investment capital structure for the Program, the Minister of Agriculture and Environment said that the local budget capital for implementation is the total local budget capital at 2 levels (including provincial and communal levels) of 34 provinces and cities allocated for the Program, of which 7 localities are self-balancing and 27 localities receive support from the central budget.

View of the meeting. Photo: Quang Khanh

"This is one of the main sources of capital, reflecting the proactive role and responsibility of local Party committees and authorities in implementing the program's goals in the area."

Emphasizing this, the Minister of Agriculture and Environment also said that in the period of 2021 - 2025, out of the total of nearly 300,000 billion VND of local capital allocated to implement 3 national target programs, the capital of 16 provinces and cities that balance their own budgets accounts for about 65%. For the remaining 47 provinces, the proportion of counterpart capital of localities is regulated in accordance with the proportion of support received from the central budget and the actual conditions of the locality. In particular, the proportion of counterpart capital of disadvantaged localities is only about 5% compared to the capital supported by the central budget.

"Incorporating the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the review opinions of the Ethnic Council and the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the Government will continue to review and balance to determine the most appropriate budget capital level for localities," the Minister of Agriculture and Environment pledged.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/se-ra-soat-can-doi-de-dac-dinh-muc-von-ngan-sach-cua-dia-phuong-phu-hop-nhat-10399386.html