Expenditures can not reduced without cutting career employees

	Taking initiative in many budget management solutions in 2017
	Five-year financial plan made and examined
	Amend Law on Public Debt: Tie responsibility of borrowing and repaying to budget expenditures.

The Minister Dinh Tien Dung speaks to the National Assembly.

It is suggested to increase spendings on science and technology

Discussing in the Hall on 2015 State budget settlement, on the morning of 12^th June 2017, many delegates agreed with the Government's report and the examination of the National Assembly’s Finance Committee budget. Therefore, a number of registration comments on this issue are not as many as the other contents. According to the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, Mr. Phung Quoc Hien (Moderator of the discussion), only 10 delegates registered to comment.

Speaking directly to the National Assembly, in addition to continuing to express a high level of consensus, many delegates made specific comments to make budget administration more effective.

According to Mr. Hoang Quang Ham (Phu Tho), the estimation of VAT is very difficult to be in line with the reality, so the Government should timely submit to the National Assembly to adjust the tax refund.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Van The (Soc Trang) proposed that the Government should consider increasing spendings on research and development of science and technology. Because the amount of 10,000 billion vnd in 2015 was quite low.

"If we do not invest in science and technology, we will fall into the middle-income trap," he said. In addition, the investment in this sector should increase by about 1% to 2% of GDP, while the current investment is only about 0.2% of GDP.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Sinh (Hoa Binh) said that budget collection in 2015 was guaranteed to be balanced in the context of tax exemption and reduction to support enterprises and social welfare. Therefore, the revenues in 2015 ensured the basic goals of the National Assembly resolution.

However, Mr. Nguyen Tien Sinh suggested that the budgetary management process should focus on clarifying the annual revenue estimation and collection method.

Using fiscal policy flexibly

In response to the National Assembly’s delegates, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Dinh Tien Dung said: Due to the difficult economic conditions, we have used flexible fiscal policy over time, focusing on the issues to adjust the collection policy and ensure that domestic development is stimulated. The policy for quick tax reduction has been approved. Also, tax policies are integrated into specialized laws and social security policies. For example, corporate income tax incentives have fallen sharply from 25% to 22%, and then 20%, while the roadmap is to reduce to 20% by 2020.

In order to ensure the budget revenue, especially an increase in the proportion of revenues from the domestic revenues according to the policy of the Party and State, the Ministry of Finance will submit the draft law amending and supplementing the Law on environmental protection tax; propose the National Assembly to adjust at the fourth session of a law revising the 5 tax laws; and property tax law.

Regarding tax evasion and wrong tax declaration, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Dinh Tien Dung said that the Ministry of Finance was directing the implementation of modernization to facilitate the people and businesses in tax declaration and payment and improve efficiency. Currently, the tax industry is a pioneer in modernization management. The proportion of self-calculated companies, self-declaration, self-submission, and self-responsibility is increasing. Particularly, electronic tax declaration has risen to 99.8%. Also, there are 42 banks cooperating to collect tax online and the number of enterprises has increased by 98%.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance has directed the intensification of inspection and control drastically, because, in fact, the rate of enterprises involved in tax-related violations is at a high level. The Minister reported to the National Assembly that in 2015, 79,297 enterprises were inspected, with the total amount paid into the State budget of 12,351 billion vnd, the deduction was 1,239 billion vnd, and the loss reduction was 23,044 billion vnd.

Noticeably, the Ministry of Finance has recently submitted to the Government to issue a Decree on anti- transfer pricing.

Regarding the refund of VAT, the Minister said that every year the Government drafted estimates, the National Assembly decided on the tax refund estimates. The amount of tax refund is not a part of the State budget. "The tax refund is very difficult to close to reality, but in 2016, it was close to estimates", the Minister Dinh Tien Dung said.

Regarding the management of tax debts, according to the Minister of Finance, in the spirit of drastic inspections as mentioned above, the annual tax debt collection is very high with a continuous increase.

In 2014, the Government collected 31,000 billion vnd, in 2015, it collected 37,000 billion vnd and in 2016, and it collected 42,000 billion vnd of tax debt.

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The Minister Dinh Tien Dung emphasized that solutions for tax debt management was implemented drastically. The Ministry of Finance has recently directed the public disclosure of taxpayers. This work has been fiercely implemented. Regarding the State budget, it but must be consistent with all branches, levels and localities. Thus, there should be a coordination, co-implementation step by step for the healthier State budget.