Delegates propose to extend the interest rate support period according to Resolution 43

On the afternoon of May 25, continuing the 7th session, the National Assembly continued to discuss in the hall the Report of the Supervisory Delegation and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on the results of the thematic supervision 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 National Assembly's resolutions on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023".

Photo caption — View of the meeting, afternoon of May 25. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Putting policies into practice quickly National Assembly deputies agreed that Resolution 43 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program is a correct and timely decision, contributing significantly to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery and development of the socio-economy. Opinions focused on analyzing the results, shortcomings, limitations, causes and responsibilities in implementing the resolution; contributing many solutions to ensure more effective results when issuing policies in urgent, urgent situations or when there are unexpected socio-economic fluctuations due to objective factors. National Assembly deputies also contributed solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles to speed up the implementation of important national projects and effectively implement the policies of Resolution 43 that have not yet been completed.

Delegate Duong Khac Mai (Dak Nong) highly appreciated the implementation of Resolution 43 of the National Assembly. The implementation of fiscal policy under Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 has helped businesses and business households in the area recover and rapidly develop production and business activities, promote growth drivers; reduce costs, support cash flow, ensure initiative, and create favorable conditions for businesses, economic organizations and people. The 2% reduction in value-added tax rate under Resolution No. 43 of the National Assembly has had a direct positive impact on social life, thereby reducing product prices, helping to ensure social security, and supporting people's lives. However, the delegate also said that there were shortcomings and limitations in the implementation process. Regarding development investment policies, according to delegates, the disbursement of capital under the program is still stuck due to inadequacies in the current Mineral Law such as regulations on mineral protection and mineral recovery. This problem also makes it impossible to implement many projects, component projects under the 3 National Target Programs and other socio-economic development investment projects, thereby affecting the progress of disbursement of investment capital sources, affecting socio-economic development in general.

According to delegate Duong Van Phuoc (Quang Nam), public investment and development investment policies have only disbursed 65.3% of the plan, and the disbursement progress of many projects has not met requirements. In addition to objective reasons, there is also the responsibility of a number of central ministries and branches as well as a number of localities for the lack of drastic implementation. Delegate Duong Van Phuoc suggested that the National Assembly should consider issuing policy mechanisms to continue supporting and restoring economic and social development as well as solutions to remove legal obstacles and barriers to unblock investment resources and production and business. The Government needs to flexibly operate fiscal and monetary policies, continue to synchronously implement solutions to remove difficulties for the financial and monetary markets, corporate bond markets as well as the real estate market. In addition, the delegate suggested that central ministries and branches continue to research and simplify procedures, create conditions for people and businesses to access resources, and promote production and business. Speaking on the issues of concern to the delegates, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung thanked the National Assembly delegates for their frank and accurate opinions, which will be valuable lessons for the process of building and implementing policies in the future. The Minister said that Resolution No. 43 was built in a particularly difficult situation, when economic growth decreased sharply, businesses faced many challenges, the global supply chain was broken, requiring urgent solutions to support businesses and people to stabilize their lives and gradually restore the socio-economy. According to the Minister of Planning and Investment, the time to build and implement the program is very short, the program is large-scale, wide-ranging, related to many fields, organizations, and subjects; However, experience and capacity are still limited, coordination in implementing some projects is not good, fear of making mistakes and responsibility arises in some cadres, this is the reason why some results are not as expected.

The Minister of Planning and Investment said that in terms of implementation, the Prime Minister, the Government, and ministries have been very active, issuing many legal documents, guiding documents, and establishing many working groups and delegations to urge implementation. All members of the Government have gone to many localities to resolve the bottlenecks and difficulties of each public investment project under the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program. The Minister of Planning and Investment said that he will absorb the enthusiastic opinions of National Assembly deputies, improve the process, develop and organize implementation so that policies can be quickly put into practice. Proposal to extend the interest rate support policy Regarding the implementation of the 2% interest rate support policy through the commercial banking system, delegate Vu An Tuan (Phu Tho) said that this is a very important solution to reduce costs, directly support production and business, and make an important contribution to the recovery and development of the socio-economy. However, the implementation results from the beginning of the program to the end of 2023 only achieved about 3.05% of the policy scale. It can be seen that this policy has hardly been put into practice, affecting the implementation of the goals of the socio-economic recovery and development program. According to the delegate, through practice, the principles of policy implementation according to Decree 31 of the Government are not suitable and not clear. The instructions of the competent authorities are also not complete and clear, many enterprises, cooperatives, and business households are facing difficulties due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the credit balance is at a high level, while the conditions for borrowing capital with interest rate support are very strict, to ensure the safety of credit activities. This leads to many enterprises, cooperatives, and business households not meeting the conditions to borrow interest rate support. In addition, many enterprises are afraid of inspection, examination and auditing, so when receiving support from the State budget, although they meet the conditions, they do not request interest rate support. The delegate said that enterprises really want to receive credit interest rate support according to the State's policy, but for some of the above reasons, the implementation has not met expectations. The delegate suggested that the Government should evaluate the causes more carefully to draw lessons when introducing similar policies in the next phase.

According to delegate Tran Anh Tuan (Ho Chi Minh City), the group of successful policies that brought positive effects to the economy is the policy of reducing value added tax by 2%. The Report also clearly pointed out the resources for this policy. However, the National Assembly needs to further evaluate the effectiveness of the policy. In addition to the comments that we clearly see that the policy has contributed to stimulating the economy, effectively supporting the production and business activities of enterprises, the policy of reducing value added tax by 2% also contributes to increasing income tax for enterprises. Therefore, delegate Tran Anh Tuan proposed that the policy of reducing value added tax by 2% continue to be extended in the coming time. Speaking at the conference, Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Thi Hong shared that the context of implementing Resolution 43 is the context of the world and domestic economy with unpredictable and unprecedented developments, tight monetary policies of countries, difficulties in the real estate market, geopolitical conflicts... As a member of the Government, I have witnessed the determination of the Government, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and members to try to implement programs and policies to remove difficulties for the economy.

After Resolution 43 was issued, the Government assigned the State Bank to preside over and coordinate with ministries and branches to develop and advise on the submission of Decree No. 31. The Governor of the State Bank said that there has never been a program that the State Bank has spent so much time and effort to organize and implement. Many conferences were held, requiring each provincial and municipal branch to implement in the localities. Explaining the low results of policy implementation, the Governor of the State Bank said that this is one of the programs of Resolution 43. From the beginning, it was determined that this is a support policy for businesses with the ability to recover, that is, the ability to repay loans, not a policy to solve for all businesses in a difficult economy. The loan capital of the program is capital mobilized by credit institutions from the people. Only the 2% interest rate support part comes from the state budget. Therefore, credit institutions must make loans in accordance with current legal regulations and ensure the ability to recover debts. Therefore, the amount of disbursement depends largely on the decisions of enterprises and credit institutions. The Governor of the State Bank expressed his agreement with many opinions of National Assembly deputies that in a complex and unprecedented context, policies may not be close to reality, but the important thing is that through this we can draw lessons on how to support enterprises and people.