In 2023, our country continues to face many difficulties and challenges. In that context, a series of policies have been promptly issued and effectively implemented, typically the fiscal policy to support people and businesses. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Ministry of Finance continues to submit to competent authorities and issue support policies under its authority with a scale of about 200 trillion VND.
Some typical financial support policies include: Submitting to the Government to submit to the National Assembly a 2% reduction in value-added tax (VAT) rate from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 for most items currently subject to a VAT rate of 10%. The expected tax reduction is about VND 24 trillion; submitting to the Government to issue Decree No. 12/2023/ND-CP dated April 14, 2023 extending the deadline for payment of VAT, corporate income tax (CIT), personal income tax (PIT) and land rent in 2023 for enterprises, organizations, business households and individual businesses. Accordingly, the expected amount of tax and land rent to be considered for extension is more than VND 110 trillion; submit to the Government to issue Decree No. 36/2023/ND-CP dated June 21, 2023 extending the deadline for paying special consumption tax (SCT) arising from the tax calculation period of June, July, August, September 2023 for domestically manufactured and assembled automobiles. It is expected that enterprises will be granted an extension of tax payment of about 10.4 trillion - 11.2 trillion VND...
2023 is the 9th consecutive year (from 2014 - 2022) that the Ministry of Finance is among the top 3 ministries and ministerial-level agencies in terms of PAR Index with the result of Administrative Reform Index reaching 89.76%. Regarding the Public Finance Reform Index, the Ministry of Finance continues to be one of the leading ministries, achieving a rate of over 96%.
By identifying "promoting modernization and developing a digital financial platform based on the application of information technology associated with digital transformation" as one of the breakthroughs in the "Financial Development Strategy to 2030", the Ministry of Finance has focused on effectively deploying large, core information systems closely following the national digital transformation program, with special attention to supporting the settlement of administrative procedures for people and businesses such as tax, customs, and treasury.
With the application of the Electronic Invoice system nationwide, to date, the total number of invoices received and processed has reached nearly 6.1 billion, of which 1.7 billion have codes; more than 4.4 billion do not have codes. Currently, the tax authority continues to deploy the Digital Map of Business Households; operate the database analysis system and manage electronic invoices based on Big Data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI); expand the electronic invoice program from cash registers... Most recently, the "VAT declaration service for deduction method for production and business activities" of the General Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance) was honored by the Ministry of Information and Communications as one of the four excellent online public services.
The State Treasury officially and widely deployed the automatic payment process for electricity, water, and telecommunication services under the authorization of budget spending units.
On December 8, 2023, Fitch Ratings upgraded Vietnam's long-term sovereign credit rating to BB+ with a "Stable" outlook. Fitch's upgrade of Vietnam's sovereign credit rating in the context of the world facing challenges of declining growth, economy, trade as well as increasing financial risks in many countries has demonstrated the international community's extremely positive assessment of the leadership and management efforts of the Party, National Assembly and Government of Vietnam in recent times to stabilize the macroeconomy and restore the economy, consolidate the political and social foundation; The efforts of the Ministry of Finance and relevant ministries and branches in regularly updating and periodically transmitting information on achievements and results in Vietnam's socio-economic development to credit rating organizations and the investor community. Financial markets continue to be consolidated, difficulties and obstacles are promptly resolved to develop more and more healthily, openly and transparently.
The scale of public debt by the end of 2023 is about 37% of GDP, much lower than the ceiling of 60% set by the National Assembly. Government debt is about 34% of GDP, much lower than the ceiling of 50%. This outstanding debt level is much lower than the average in 2023 of countries with BB credit ratings of 52.8% of GDP and BBB of 54.9% of GDP.
The debt structure is positive, domestic debt balance has increased, accounting for about 71% of government debt balance, contributing to minimizing exchange rate risks. Domestic debt is mainly Government bonds with long issuance terms, minimizing the risk of debt restructuring. Foreign debt has gradually decreased in the government's loan structure. The current foreign debt portfolio is mainly long-term loans with preferential interest rates; contributing to increasing sustainability in the face of exchange rate fluctuations of strong currencies globally.
The task of building and perfecting the institutions of the Ministry of Finance is quite heavy (usually accounting for about 1/4 - 1/3 of the volume of building legal documents of Government agencies), with many complicated contents, but the Ministry of Finance always ensures the progress of completing the Law and Ordinance Building Program and the Work Program, contributing to positively impacting the economic and social life of the country.
As of December 26, 2023, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Government and the National Assembly for approval 1 Law and 1 Resolution; submitted to the Government for promulgation 19 Decrees and is considering promulgating 15 Decrees; submitted to the Prime Minister for promulgation 6 Decisions; issued under its authority 64 Circulars.
In addition, in order to encourage the use of online public services, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 63/2023/TT-BTC dated October 16, 2023, reducing a number of fees and charges for performing online public services. Accordingly, from December 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025, there will be 8 fees and charges when performing online public services with a reduction of 10-50%. It is estimated that the estimated amount of support for people and businesses when implementing this policy is about 100 billion VND/year.
To ensure the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnam and create a level of trust among multinational corporations in continuing to expand investment in Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance has assigned the General Department of Taxation to preside over research to assess the impact and refer to international experience to develop a global minimum tax policy.
On November 29, 2023, at the 6th Session, the 15th National Assembly officially passed Resolution No. 107/2023/QH15 on global minimum tax. This is a necessary step and with its application from January 1, 2024, Vietnam affirms its position and right to tax the country, contributing to increasing revenue for the State budget from additional tax collection, contributing to strengthening international integration and reforming the tax system in line with international practices.
In order to have more resources to increase development investment spending and promote economic recovery, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to competent authorities for decision the estimate of the state budget deficit in 2023 at 4.42% of GDP. During the management process, the deficit has been strictly controlled, borrowing and issuing government bonds in accordance with the collection progress, the ability to disburse investment capital and the state budget fund balance, thereby saving interest costs for the state budget. The estimated state budget deficit is about 4% of GDP (a decrease of VND 40.3 trillion compared to the estimate).
Regarding price management, it is estimated that the consumer price index (CPI) will increase by about 3.5% for the whole year (target is about 4.5%).
In 2023, the entire customs sector coordinated to arrest and handle nearly 16,000 violations in the customs field, with the value of violated goods of about 12.5 trillion VND; including many typical cases, such as: seizing over 65,000 liters of D/O oil, FO and gasoline of all kinds, 8.3 tons of ivory, 37 kg of rhino horn, 2.8 tons of drugs of all kinds... The customs agency prosecuted 40 cases, and transferred 186 cases to other agencies for prosecution.
In 2023, the Ministry of Finance has implemented many activities to promote deep and comprehensive cooperation in the financial sector. Notably, the foreign affairs activities of the Minister of Finance include: Working in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of Belgium in July 2023 to promote financial cooperation with the Ministries of Finance of other countries, especially green finance and chairing the Investment Promotion Roundtable in Luxembourg; Activities in the United States within the framework of the working trip of the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation led by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to participate in the High-Level Week of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 20. Accordingly, Minister Ho Duc Phoc had a working session with the US Secretary of the Treasury, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings and Moody's.
In November 2023, Minister Ho Duc Phoc attended the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting 2023 in San Francisco as part of the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting 2023 hosted by the United States. Minister Ho Duc Phoc chaired the Financial Investment Promotion Conferences organized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance in Los Angeles, attracting a large number of investors including large investment funds, corporations, and US businesses.
In terms of multilateral cooperation, 2023 is also the year marking many major international events successfully organized by the Ministry of Finance, such as: Customs organizing the World Customs Organization (WCO) Technology Conference and Exhibition 2023. The Ministry of Finance also successfully organized the 26th ASEAN Insurance Regulators Meeting (AIRM26) and the 49th ASEAN Insurance Council Meeting (AIC49) with the theme "Sustainability, Inclusion and Connectivity" taking place from December 6-8, 2023 in Ha Long City (Quang Ninh).
Faced with the complicated and unpredictable situation of natural disasters and floods, implementing the Prime Minister's Decisions, in 2023, the Ministry of Finance has provided food and national defense equipment with a total value of about 1,448 billion VND, including: 108,118 tons of rice with a value of about 1,300 billion VND and national defense equipment and supplies of about 148 billion VND, contributing to ensuring social security.
The Ministry of Finance has also actively implemented a series of social security activities in remote, isolated and extremely disadvantaged areas, especially activities to support the construction of charity houses, trade union shelters, and scholarships for poor students such as: Building 100 charity houses for poor households in Bac Kan; 50 charity houses for poor and near-poor households in Nghe An province; 141 charity houses built for poor and near-poor households and families in extremely difficult circumstances in remote districts...
According to baochinhphu.vn
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