Amending the Budget Law: Institutional driving force for a new era

Overcoming shortcomings

According to information provided by the Ministry of Finance at the Conference to collect comments on the Project to comprehensively amend the State Budget Law held on the morning of April 11, in Hanoi: After more than 8 years of implementation, the State Budget Law (NSNN) 2015 has made an important contribution to the management and use of the State budget in an effective and transparent manner, making an important contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.

Mr. Ho Sy Hung - Deputy Minister of Finance spoke at the Conference to discuss and give comments on the Project to comprehensively amend the State Budget Law held on the morning of April 11. Illustrative photo

However, in the new context, with changes in the economy, society and international, the Law has revealed a number of limitations and inadequacies that need to be amended and supplemented to suit reality and meet development requirements.

On that basis, the Government and the Prime Minister have assigned the Ministry of Finance to urgently study and comprehensively amend the 2015 State Budget Law, propose to add it to the 2025 Law-making Program according to shortened procedures to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 9th Session (May 2025).

According to the representative of the Ministry of Finance, comprehensively amending the State Budget Law is an extremely important task, of strategic significance to the management and use of national finance and state budget, contributing to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals in the new period, accompanying the whole country into a new era - the era of striving for strong, prosperous development of the nation and carrying out a revolution in the organization of the apparatus towards the goal of strengthening the construction of a streamlined, effective, efficient and effective apparatus.

4 key issues in amending the State Budget Law

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Draft Law on State Budget (amended) focuses on solving 4 key issues, including: First : Innovating the mechanism of revenue decentralization between the central budget and local budgets in the direction of strengthening the leading role of the central budget, while creating conditions for local budgets to be more autonomous and proactive in mobilizing and using resources for socio-economic development.

Second : Review and amend regulations on decentralization of budget expenditure tasks in the direction of clearly defining the responsibilities and powers of each level in using the budget, prioritizing resource allocation for key tasks, especially science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation.

Third : Strengthening decentralization and delegation of authority in budget preparation and implementation. The draft Law increases the authority of the Government in deciding to adjust the revenue and expenditure estimates of a number of ministries, central and local agencies, but does not increase the borrowing level or state budget deficit. It increases the authority of the People's Committees at all levels in localities to decide to adjust the local budget expenditure estimates, and then report back to the competent authority.

The handling of increases and decreases in revenue and expenditure compared to the estimate during the implementation of the State budget is amended in the direction of: Eliminating the regulation on priority order when allocating increased revenue and remaining estimated expenditure items of the budget level, while expanding the scope of resources used... to improve efficiency and timeliness in resolving arising issues.

Fourth : Reduce and simplify administrative procedures, optimize processes and procedures in budget preparation, implementation and settlement, such as: Reduce procedures related to the process of building and announcing annual and 3-year budget revenue and expenditure inspection numbers. Thereby, creating favorable conditions for both financial agencies and budget-using units; shortening the time for budget synthesis and settlement.

The draft Law on State Budget (amended) is built on the following viewpoints: Fully institutionalizing the policies and orientations of the Party and the State; Legalizing clear issues that are consistent with reality; Regulating issues of principle, ensuring consistency and unity among legal provisions; Promoting decentralization, creating proactiveness and flexibility, enhancing the autonomy of localities in the spirit of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"; Inheriting and promoting the achievements of the current Law, amending and supplementing regulations that are no longer suitable to remove difficulties and obstacles.

Nguyen Hoa

Source: https://congthuong.vn/sua-luat-ngan-sach-dong-luc-the-che-cho-ky-nguyen-moi-382491.html