Prioritizing the allocation of public investment capital

In 2024, the total capital decided by the National Assembly and allocated to ministries, central agencies and localities is VND657,349 billion

Prioritize capital allocation for key projects and national goals

In 2024, the total capital decided by the National Assembly and allocated to ministries, central agencies and localities is VND657,349 billion, including central budget capital of VND225,000 billion (domestic capital is VND205,000 billion, foreign capital is VND20,000 billion) and local budget capital is VND432,249 billion. By the end of January 2024, the local budget balance of local budget capital plan has increased compared to the plan assigned by the Prime Minister at VND 31,147 billion. Thus, the total plan assigned in 2024 is VND688,496.3 billion.

According to the report on the payment status of investment capital from the state budget in January of the 2024 plan of the Ministry of Finance, the total allocated capital reached more than 100% of the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister. If not counting the amount of VND31,147 billion which is an increase of local budget balance capital plans allocated by localities, the total allocated capital is VND626,652 billion, reaching 95.33% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

In particular, investment capital for important national projects, highway projects, inter-regional projects, coastal roads, and other key projects is VND93,534 billion (the minimum capital amount must be arranged according to the Prime Minister's Decision Government is VND92,900 billion). Capital allocated for three national target programs is 23,004 out of VND27,220 billion. Capital allocated for projects under the Economic and Social Recovery and Development Program is VND5,822.67 billion.

According to a report from the Ministry of Finance, the capital allocation met the priority criteria as stipulated, with priority given to completed projects, transitional projects according to progress, important national projects, important and key projects,...

According to many assessments, the capital allocation of public investment plans is increasingly improving. The reason is that ministries, branches, and localities have identified public investment disbursement as a key to economic development. Furthermore, the leaders of the National Assembly and the Government have given many directions to this work. In resolutions, the National Assembly has requested the Government to tighten financial discipline as well as allocate and assign estimates on time according to the provisions of the State Budget Law. Therefore, from the end of 2023, the Prime Minister has issued a decision requesting ministries, central agencies, and localities to allocate detailed central budget capital plans. In the early days of 2024, the Ministry of Finance also issued an official dispatch urging the allocation, input of estimates, and disbursement of public investment capital plans.

Solving many problems

The above results are positive and are a fulcrum for the disbursement of public investment capital in 2024 to achieve high results. However, according to the Ministry of Finance, there are 20 out of 44 ministries, central agencies and 39 out of 63 localities that have not yet been allocated the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister. The total unallocated capital is VND30,536.9 billion, accounting for 4.65% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister including central budget capital is VND12,465.7 billion, local budget balance capital is VND18,071.2 billion.

Specifying the reasons for not fully allocating the capital plan, the report from the Ministry of Finance stated that for domestic central budget capital, projects and tasks under the National Target Program of nine ministries and seven localities have not completed investment procedures. These projects are currently facing many difficulties in implementation, mainly due to the project appraisal stage (long time, especially procedures of asking for opinions from construction appraisal agencies and important projects, which has a complex nature...). Some projects have been committed by ministries and branches to complete investment preparation for capital allocation before the first quarter of 2024.

Besides that many projects and tasks under the National Target Program that are assigned plans in 2023 are being prioritized by localities for implementation. Furthermore, several projects and tasks are being submitted to the Prime Minister. The government allows extending the time to allocate capital to implement or synthesizing to submit to competent authorities for adjusting the medium-term public investment plan and will allocate details after a decision is made, or the allocation decision has not been sent yet...

Regarding foreign central budget capital, there are currently eight ministries and localities that have not yet allocated detailed plans due to difficulties in bidding and adjusting project investment policies; negotiating and signing a capital use agreement...

For domestic local budget capital that has not been allocated in detail, the reasons are both subjective and objective, including new projects expected to start construction in 2024 but investment procedures have not been completed; localities leave the allocation for later, have not fully allocated investment capital from land use revenue, lottery, local budget overspending; some localities have assigned plans based on the actual revenue situation, so they have not yet made allocations...

In Directive No. 06/CT-TTg dated February 15, 2024 urging the implementation of key tasks after the Lunar New Year holiday of Giap Thin 2024, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities urgently allocate in detail 100% of the public investment capital of the 2024 state budget assigned by the Prime Minister, ensuring compliance with the provisions of public investment law and the Government's resolutions.

Accordingly, ministries, branches, and localities need to pay attention to resolving emerging problems.

The Ministry of Finance has highlighted some issues that need to be improved in capital allocation, including the situation where some ministries allocate capital to investors who are not affiliated with the ministry. Regarding this content, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Dispatch No. 230/BTC-DT dated January 8, 2024 to the above ministries requesting to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to clarify the legal basis and compliance with current legal regulations in assigning investor tasks to units that are not affiliated with the ministry.