The National Assembly votes to pass laws and resolutions.

Continuing the working program of the 5th Session, on the afternoon of June 19, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, National Assembly deputies worked in the hall to vote to pass the resolution on approving the 2021 state budget settlement and the Law on Prices (amended).

Comrade Ngo Dong Hai, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation and delegates at the meeting.

Through the draft resolution, the National Assembly highly appreciated the Government's efforts in the context of the economy being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government has implemented policies to remove difficulties for businesses and people, especially policies on tax and fee exemption and reduction, extension of tax payment deadlines, land rents and many policies to support businesses and people, policies on epidemic prevention and social security. Total budget revenue increased by 17.2% compared to the estimate, of which domestic revenue exceeded the estimate by 15.9%, balanced revenue from import-export activities increased by 21.2% compared to the estimate; the management and operation of state budget expenditures in 2021 were proactive and strict, ensuring expenditures in important areas, prioritizing implementation for Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control, ensuring social security, and stabilizing people's lives.

In addition to the achieved results, the National Assembly also assessed that the forecasting and assessment of the situation, the work of making, implementing the estimates and finalizing the state budget in 2021 still has shortcomings and limitations that have lasted for many years and have not been overcome. The work of making estimates for some revenue items is not accurate, lower than the actual amount of the previous year; some ministries, branches and localities have allocated and assigned investment capital plans slowly, have not allocated in detail from the beginning of the year, adjusted and supplemented capital plans many times during the year; the outstanding debt for basic construction is still large; transferred expenditures continue to increase in scale and proportion; the preparation, appraisal and submission of the state budget finalization are still slow compared to the prescribed time limit; the implementation of the conclusions and recommendations of the State Audit at some agencies and units is still slow; the review and clarification of the responsibilities of some agencies, units and localities according to the resolutions of the National Assembly have not been strictly implemented.

The National Assembly requested the Government, ministries, central agencies, People's Councils, People's Committees at all levels and units managing state budget revenue and expenditure to strictly handle violations, review and draw lessons from the above-mentioned shortcomings and limitations; strengthen discipline, order, strictly implement legal provisions in state budget management and use, and state budget settlement to avoid repeating these shortcomings and limitations in the following years.

The Draft Law on Prices was approved by the majority of National Assembly deputies at the meeting, consisting of 8 chapters and 75 articles regulating the rights and obligations of agencies, organizations, individuals, and consumers in the fields of prices and price appraisal; State price management and regulation activities; synthesis, analysis, and forecasting of market prices; price database; price appraisal; specialized price inspection, inspection of compliance with the law on prices, and price appraisal. The Law amends a number of new provisions on price stabilization; on State pricing; on price negotiation, price declaration, price posting, inspection of compliance with the law on prices; on price appraisal; on specialized price inspection, inspection of compliance with the law on prices; on abolishing, amending, and supplementing a number of articles of relevant laws. The Law on Prices is effective from July 1, 2024. Law on Prices No. 11/2012/QH13, as amended and supplemented by a number of articles in Law No. 61/2014/QH13, Law No. 64/2020/QH14 and Law No. 07/2022/QH15, ceases to be effective from the effective date of this Law, except for specific transitional provisions in Article 75 of this Law.

Previously, at the morning session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh chaired the meeting in the hall to discuss the draft Law on Housing (amended). There were 28 opinions expressed by delegates, 4 delegates debated the content of the draft law. The National Assembly delegates unanimously assessed that this is a law project with many complex contents, closely related to many other law projects on land, investment, bidding, prices, real estate business, directly affecting each citizen, business, policy, social security and the country's investment and business environment. According to the draft law file, the draft Law on Housing (amended) consists of 13 chapters, 196 articles, compared to the current Law on Housing, 13 articles are increased, 7 articles in the old law are abolished, 47 articles are kept, 104 articles are amended and supplemented, 34 new articles are added, and 11 articles are legalized from the decree. In addition to general issues on the necessity of promulgating the law and the draft law dossier, delegates focused on discussing 6 major groups of issues, 4 groups of issues on the consistency of the draft Law and a number of other specific issues such as: issues on the program and plan for provincial housing development, on the form of land use to implement commercial housing construction investment projects, the issue of renovating and rebuilding apartment buildings, social housing development policies, the issue of accommodation for workers; the suitability of the content of the draft Law with the Party's policies and guidelines, the constitutionality, legality, consistency of the draft Law with the current legal system and especially with the laws that the National Assembly is considering and discussing; the feasibility of the provisions in the draft Law to overcome the shortcomings, inadequacies, and obstacles in the practical implementation of the current Housing Law, etc.

Vu Son Tung

(Office of the National Assembly Delegation and Provincial People's Council)

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