Solving problems in allocating capital to carry out the task of preparing for investment

The Ministry of Finance sent a document to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai about removing obstacles in the allocation of annual capital plans to prepare for investment projects in the medium-term public investment plan 2021-2025.

Presenting this problem, the Ministry of Finance said that regarding the allocation of capital for investment preparation, the Law on Public Investment stipulates that investment preparation capital is allocated for the formulation, appraisal and deciding on the investment policy of the project; formulation, appraisal and decision on investment projects. Capital for performing planning tasks shall be allocated for the formulation, appraisal, making decisions or approval, announcement and adjustment of the planning following the law on planning. Capital for project implementation shall be allocated for site clearance, technical design, construction drawing design, cost estimation of the project or project item, construction organization and other works following the project approval decision.

Also, according to the Law on Public Investment, the Prime Minister assigned the medium-term public investment plan, including the total capital and state budget capital structure, to ministries, central and local agencies; lists, capital levels of public investment programs and projects, capital levels for planning tasks, investment preparation tasks and other public investment objects with capital from the central budget.

Article 51 of the Law on Public Investment stipulates the principle of allocating capital for medium-term and annual public investment plans for programs and projects. Accordingly, the allocation of planned capital for the newly started program or project must satisfy the requirements that the program or project is necessary and fully meet the conditions for allocating plan capital as prescribed in Articles 52 and 53 of this Law.

The conditions for programs, projects, tasks, and other public investment objects to be allocated capital in the annual public investment plan are that the programs, projects, tasks and other public investment objects must be included in the medium-term public investment plan, except for urgent public investment projects; competent authorities decide other programs, projects, tasks and public investment subjects.

According to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, the conditions for projects and investment preparation tasks to be allocated capital in the annual public investment plan are projects and tasks of investment preparation that must be included in the medium-term public investment plan. In addition, new construction projects must be approved by competent authorities for investment.

Need specific guidance on conditions for allocating capital for investment preparation. Photo: Thuỳ Linh.

Presenting the current situation for the assignment of capital for investment preparation tasks, the Ministry of Finance said that when proposing the demand on a medium-term investment capital plan for the 2021-2025 period, ministries and central agencies has proposed that demand on capital for investment preparation tasks should be separated from the capital portfolio for project implementation.

Based on the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposal, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1535/QD-TTg dated September 15, 2021, on assigning a medium-term investment capital plan for state budget in 2021-2025 for ministries and central and local agencies.

However, in the Prime Minister's Decision on capital allocation, besides several ministries and central agencies that are assigned a separate list of investment preparation tasks or a separate part of the list of investment preparation tasks, many ministries and central agencies are only assigned a list of new construction projects (without separating the task of preparing for investment). Therefore, at present, these ministries and sectors do not have the capital to prepare the investment for the projects. This has affected the approval progress of investment projects.

Due to the implementation of investment, preparation needs to be prioritized before one step as a basis for completing investment procedures for projects; in the document on the allocation of the state budget investment capital plan in 2023, ministries and central authorities have allocated capital plans to prepare investment in new start-up projects. However, because these projects are not on the investment preparation tasks assigned by the Prime Minister, they are not eligible as prescribed.

From the above situation, to help ministries, central and local agencies have a basis for implementing investment preparation tasks, especially projects that will be allocated capital from the medium-term public investment plan 2021-2025, including the project of the Customs office at Long Thanh International Airport of the Ministry of Finance, the document of the Ministry of Finance proposed the Prime Minister to assign Ministry of Planning and Investment to provide specific instructions on conditions for allocating capital for investment preparation in the medium-term and annual public investment plans so that ministries, central and local agencies have a basis for implementation.