Need to reduce procedures for receiving support money after natural disasters and epidemics

Many opinions suggested that the agricultural sector quickly complete the support policy for agricultural production establishments damaged by natural disasters and epidemics by increasing support money and reducing procedures and time to receive policies.

Since early July 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has issued a document seeking opinions from ministries, branches, and localities to contribute to the Draft Decree regulating mechanisms and policies to support agricultural production to restore production in areas damaged by natural disasters and plant diseases (replacing Decree No. 02/2017/ND-CP).

However, currently, in the context that many northern provinces are focusing on overcoming the consequences of Storm No. 3 and floods and landslides, and the rainy and stormy season in the central provinces is also entering its peak months, many opinions say that the agency drafting the Decree needs to speed up the progress of legal completion to promptly submit it to the Government for promulgation, contributing to supporting areas damaged by natural disasters and epidemics in recent times.

In addition to individuals, households and collective economic models, Vasep proposed adding businesses to the list of beneficiaries of support policies for damage caused by natural disasters and epidemics.

From the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), representatives of seafood enterprises highly appreciated the timely additions and updates of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the draft Decree replacing Decree No. 02/2017/ND-CP, especially the significant increase in the amount of support and the subjects and locations receiving support. However, Vasep said that the Drafting Committee's failure to include "enterprises" in the list of subjects entitled to support for damage caused by natural disasters and epidemics in the draft Decree is a shortcoming that needs to be supplemented.

Specifically, in Clause 1, Article 4 of the Draft Decree (regulations on subjects and conditions for support), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development only stipulates that the subjects of support are "individuals, households; cooperative groups, cooperatives, cooperative unions; agencies and units of the armed forces; public service units". This will prevent enterprises in the seafood industry in particular and the agricultural industry in general from enjoying support policies for damages caused by natural disasters and epidemics.

Meanwhile, according to the argument of the representative of Vasep, in the present and future trends, “enterprise” is an inseparable entity and increasingly accounts for a high proportion in agricultural and aquatic production. Therefore, it is necessary to add “enterprise” to Clause 1, Article 4 of the Draft Decree.

Sharing the same view with Vasep, a representative of the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said that, in addition to adding enterprises to the group of beneficiaries of the policy to support damage caused by natural disasters and epidemics, the Drafting Committee of the Decree needs to review Article 6 of the Draft Decree (regulations on the order and procedures for supporting damage).

Because currently, according to the latest Draft of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 6 steps of the damage support procedure only mention the issue of issuing support decisions, but do not mention actual payments.

This may lead to an indefinite delay from the time the District People's Committee issues the support decision until the support money reaches the production facility. Therefore, it is recommended that the drafting agency supplement the regulation on the time from the issuance of the support decision to the actual payment.

In addition, the total time to complete all stages (from when the damaged party submits the application to the Commune People's Committee until the District People's Committee issues the support decision) is too long, lasting up to 70 days. This is not consistent with the purpose of the support, which is to help agricultural production establishments quickly restore production after natural disasters and epidemics.

According to VCCI, natural disasters and epidemics often affect many agricultural production establishments at the same time. If each establishment is required to submit documents and carry out procedures separately, it may be complicated and costly, prolonging the time. In such cases, it is recommended that the drafting agency study the mechanism for the People's Committee at the commune level to preside over the collection of statistics and at the same time verify the damage of production and business establishments to shorten the time to support production recovery.

Adjusting the support level to increase when there is damage caused by natural disasters and epidemics

According to the Draft Decree replacing Decree No. 02/2017/ND-CP of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the support level for individuals and economic organizations suffering losses due to natural disasters and epidemics has been adjusted to increase significantly compared to previous regulations.

Specifically, for rice, the maximum support level is 30 million VND/hectare (in case of damaged seedlings over 70% of the area) and the minimum support level is 3 million VND/hectare (in case of newly sown rice from 1-10 days, damaged from 30-70% of the area).

For annual crops, the maximum and minimum support levels are VND 15 million/hectare and VND 3,000,000/hectare, respectively. For perennial crops, the maximum support level is VND 30 million/hectare; the minimum support level is VND 6 million/hectare.

Particularly for the forestry sector, the maximum support level is expected to be 50 million VND/hectare in cases where the nursery area is damaged by over 70% of its area and the minimum support level is 4 million VND/hectare in cases where forest trees and non-timber forest products grown on newly planted forestry land are damaged by 30-70% of their area after half of their exploitation cycle.

Particularly for the livestock and aquaculture sector, the highest level of natural disaster and epidemic support is for the following cases: aquatic seed production (maximum support of 20 million VND/100 m3 of damaged tanks); intensive farming of pangasius and cold-water fish (maximum 50 million VND/hectare); raising dairy cows over 6 months old (support from 4.1-12 million VND/head); raising sows and boars in the exploitation cycle (support of 3 million VND/head);...

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/can-giam-thu-tuc-nhan-tien-ho-tro-sau-thien-tai-dich-benh-155559.html