Strengthening local initiative and responsibility in budget use

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management strengthens the initiative and self-responsibility of local authorities in deciding and using the budget.

Increasing local autonomy

On the morning of November 3, reporting to the National Assembly on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang emphasized that the key content of the draft Law is to continue implementing the policy of decentralization and delegation of power associated with the arrangement and streamlining of the organizational apparatus and improving governance efficiency.

Accordingly, the draft Law has removed the provision in Clause 4, Article 13 of the current Law, instead, decentralizing the Prime Minister to approve the annual re-lending limit and the annual Government guarantee limit associated with the approval of the Public Debt Loan and Repayment Plan, in order to shorten procedures. Adding tasks to the Ministry of Finance to ensure flexibility in the implementation process and reduce administrative procedures. At the same time, assigning the Ministry of Finance to proactively manage and publish documents to submit the annual Public Debt Loan and Repayment Plan.

The review report of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee basically agrees with these decentralization proposals, and at the same time recommends that the Government continue to review to ensure that decentralization and delegation regulations go hand in hand with increased objectivity, transparency and effective management of loan mobilization and use.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented the Report on the review of the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management. Photo: mediabaoquochoi

In the draft, the Law enhances the initiative and self-responsibility of local authorities in deciding and using the budget. Along with that, the Draft Law is amended to remove the regulation at the provincial level "to obtain approval from the Ministry of Finance" on the conditions and terms of local government bonds. Instead, it decentralizes the authority to the Provincial People's Committee to report to the Provincial People's Council for approval of the Bond Issuance Project.

The Economic and Financial Committee's review stated that this amendment aims to increase local autonomy, reduce procedures, shorten bond issuance time and facilitate faster capital mobilization.

However, the Economic and Financial Committee emphasized the need to clearly stipulate that the delegation of authority to the People's Council at the provincial level must be within the total loan amount approved by the National Assembly and within the local budget deficit limit as prescribed, in order to ensure public debt safety.

Expanding access to ODA loans and preferential loans for public service units

According to Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, the Draft Law comprehensively amends Article 29 of the current Law to simplify administrative procedures and remove obstacles to overcome the slow disbursement of ODA capital and foreign preferential loans in recent times.

Delegates attending the meeting. Photo: mediabaoquochoi

The review report of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee basically agreed on this simplification policy but suggested reviewing the loan proposal subjects, cases applying special procedures and assigning the Government to regulate specific cases to ensure strict and effective management.

In addition, the Draft Law expands the conditions for accessing ODA loans and preferential loans for public service units that self-insure regular expenses and part of investment expenses, and are responsible for efficiency and debt repayment. The Government also recommends: adding regulations for the governing body to report cases that are not eligible for re-borrowing so that the Government can consider and allow implementation according to the allocation mechanism. In particular, to remove obstacles regarding collateral, the Government recommends assigning the Government to provide detailed instructions, which will be the basis for stipulating that no collateral is required for science and technology organizations and public higher education institutions when re-borrowing.

Regarding this, the Economic and Financial Committee agreed on the regulation that public service units are allowed to access capital, but suggested considering the regulation that lending agencies are not subject to credit risks and carefully assessing risks to ensure public debt safety...

The Government proposed that the National Assembly allow the drafting and approval of the Law project following a shortened procedure at the 10th Session of the 15th National Assembly, with the reason of urgently institutionalizing the Party's policy, promoting decentralization and resolving urgent issues arising in practice.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/tang-cuong-su-chu-dong-va-tu-chiu-trach-nhiem-cho-dia-phuong-trong-viec-su-dung-ngan-sach-20251103115655773.htm