First Quarter Press Conference: Ministry of Finance answers many 'hot' issues

On the afternoon of April 3, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Finance held a regular press conference for the first quarter of 2025. At the event, many "hot" issues related to the US's reciprocal tax policy on imported goods from Vietnam; the issue of slow disbursement of public investment capital and the private economic development project... were asked by representatives of press agencies and answered by representatives of the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance held a regular press conference for the first quarter. Photo: Thanh Tuan

Vietnam has many goodwill gestures towards the United States.

Accordingly, in response to the press's question regarding the issue of US President Donald Trump announcing the imposition of reciprocal import tax on more than 180 trading partners with tax rates ranging from 10-50%, Vietnam is among the group of countries subject to a tax rate of 46%, Mr. Truong Ba Tuan - Deputy Director of the Tax Policy Department - Ministry of Finance said: With that tax rate, many manufacturing industries of Vietnam, especially those with large export turnover to the United States such as electricity, electronics, agriculture, textiles, footwear... will be affected.

Recently, Vietnam has made many goodwill gestures. Previously, the Ministry of Finance advised the Government to issue Decree 73/2025/ND-CP on amending and supplementing preferential import tax rates of a number of items in the preferential import tax schedule according to the list of taxable items issued with Decree 26/2023/ND-CP.

In particular, according to Mr. Truong Ba Tuan: When consulting on amending Decree 73/2025/ND-CP, the Ministry of Finance reviewed all taxes on imported goods such as environmental protection tax, special consumption tax, etc. That is the basis for proposing a balanced tax rate between Vietnam and its trading partners.

"Although Vietnam has proactively reviewed and adjusted tax rates on imported goods from the US to increase import turnover and move towards a better trade balance, the imposition of taxes from the US depends on many other factors, not just tax factors," the Deputy Minister of Finance stated.

A representative of the Ministry of Finance answers questions about private economic development. Photo: Thanh Tuan

Private economic development policy

Informing the press about the policy development to develop the private economic sector, Ms. Bui Thu Thuy - Deputy Director of the Department of Private Enterprise Development and Collective Economy (Ministry of Finance) said that the breakthrough point of the private economic development policy being developed is the policy design in a stratified direction, suitable for each group of enterprises.

The private economic development policy also integrates many important contents such as the Project on developing small and medium enterprises and the Project on developing the Vietnamese business community.

“We have organized many conferences and seminars to listen to opinions from the business community, clearly identify difficulties in institutions and laws and propose appropriate solutions. The Ministry of Finance also studied the private economic development models of China, Korea, and Japan to perfect the policy framework,” Ms. Bui Thu Thuy informed.

Ms. Bui Thu Thuy said that the upcoming private economic development policy will propose many strong and specific solutions on institutional reform, resource access policies, especially land and finance for the private sector. At the macro level, there will be a group of solutions to support large private enterprises to lead the economy, participate in key projects, develop supporting industries and supply chains.

“Along with that are policies specifically for small, micro and household businesses to create conditions for them to develop stably and sustainably and gradually transform into formal business models,” Ms. Bui Thu Thuy emphasized.

Disbursement of public investment capital is low

Another issue that the press was also interested in at the press conference was the low disbursement of public investment capital in the first quarter of 2025. Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Tien Dung - Investment Department - Ministry of Finance said: The disbursement of public investment capital up to March 30 only reached 9.5% of the plan assigned by the Government.

According to Mr. Le Tien Dung, there are several groups of reasons leading to slow disbursement of public investment capital, including the cause of many shortcomings and problems in mechanisms and policies related to the Law on Public Investment, the Law on State Budget and guiding decrees.

In addition, the problem in disbursing public investment capital is also reflected in the fact that some localities have large budget revenue sources but have not been able to allocate public investment capital.

To facilitate public investment disbursement, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Decision No. 523/QD-TTg dated March 6, 2025 to establish 7 working groups headed by 7 Deputy Prime Ministers. These working groups have also worked with localities to promote public investment disbursement, aiming to achieve the growth target of 8% or more in 2025.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi, to promote the disbursement of public investment capital, the Ministry of Finance is continuing to review from the Law on Public Investment to the Law on State Budget. In addition, it is reviewing the payment control mechanism in a more open direction, enhancing decentralization, delegating authority and assigning responsibilities to relevant agencies to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital. Because the disbursement of investment capital in 2025 is of great significance to achieving the growth target in 2025.

At the press conference, the issues of reducing VAT or streamlining the apparatus were also mentioned by the press and the representative of the Ministry of Finance gave specific answers. Accordingly, regarding the issue of streamlining the apparatus, the representative of the Ministry of Finance affirmed that streamlining the apparatus will not affect the operation of the Ministry of Finance, not only that, the new apparatus will create new people with better service quality.

Nguyen Hoa - Dinh Tuan

Source: https://congthuong.vn/hop-bao-quy-i-bo-tai-chinh-giai-dap-nhieu-van-de-nong-381366.html