Consider other tax and policy solutions instead of supporting 2% interest rate

Explaining why the 2% interest rate support package was only disbursed at over 3%, State Bank Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said that the decision to borrow or not depends on the business's calculations, not because there is no information.

On the afternoon of May 25, the National Assembly continued to discuss in the hall the report of the monitoring delegation and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on the results of the thematic monitoring of "the implementation of Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the socio-economic recovery and development program and the resolutions of the National Assembly on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023".

At the meeting, Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Thi Hong said that Resolution 43 was implemented in the context of a complicated, unpredictable and unprecedented situation in the world and in the country. In the world, due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, countries have implemented tight monetary policies. In the country, there are also a series of unfavorable factors: the incident at SCB Bank, the frozen real estate market, and difficulties with corporate bonds...

"The government has made drastic efforts to implement programs to remove difficulties for the economy," the female Governor affirmed.

State Bank Governor Nguyen Thi Hong speaks at the meeting on the afternoon of May 25. Photo: VIET CHUNG

According to the head of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), regarding the 2% interest rate support policy, "there has never been a program that the SBV has spent so much time and effort implementing."

The State Bank of Vietnam organized many conferences and requested provincial and municipal branches to implement the program in many localities. However, while acknowledging that the results of this program were low, the Governor explained that this was a policy aimed at supporting businesses that were able to recover, that is, those that were able to repay loans, and not a policy to solve all businesses in the economy facing difficulties.

“Because the loan capital in this program is capital mobilized by banks from the people. Only the capital of the 2% interest rate support program of the Policy Bank is a budget resource. Therefore, commercial banks must make loans according to current regulations, ensuring the ability to recover debts. Therefore, the amount of disbursement depends on the calculation of enterprises and commercial banks,” the female Governor stated.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong also said that the State Bank has reported in detail the difficulties and limitations of this program to the Government and the National Assembly.

Responding to the comment stated in the report of the National Assembly's monitoring delegation that one of the reasons for the low disbursement rate under this policy is due to "lack of extensive communication to customers; according to a survey by VCCI, only 29.5% of businesses know about this policy", Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong suggested further consideration of this comment.

Meeting scene, afternoon of May 25

“Not only organizing conferences, the State Bank branches in localities also organize networking conferences and invite representatives of business associations. That means members of business associations can grasp information through representatives. Banks also post information on support policies on their websites... VCCI only surveyed 8,000 private enterprises, less than 1% of enterprises nationwide, and conducted it in a short time, so it cannot be used as a guide to evaluate the entire program,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong stated.

The Governor of the State Bank agreed with the opinion of the National Assembly delegate earlier that in a complicated context, policies that are not close to reality are understandable, but the important thing is to draw lessons to support people, and to get budget money to businesses and people as quickly as possible. The Governor of the State Bank expressed his opinion that with the 2% interest rate support program, businesses do not decide to borrow capital because of interest rate support. More importantly, businesses have to calculate what they borrow for and whether they are able to repay the debt or not.

“Interest is just one of the input costs, so to support businesses, we can consider tax solutions and other policies,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong.

National Assembly delegates attending the meeting

In summary, with the VND40,000 billion package for interest rate support, by the end of 2023, 3.05% had been disbursed and the program had ended. The Government has reported and proposed that the National Assembly not mobilize additional resources for this program. In case the 2% interest rate support policy continues to be implemented, it can be included in other programs, such as switching to the support policy of the Social Policy Bank, or social security programs.

MR. PHUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/co-the-can-nhac-giai-phap-thue-chinh-sach-khac-thay-vi-ho-tro-2-lai-suat-post741556.html