Useful tool to strengthen fiscal sustainability (12/10)
12/10/2012 - 23 Lượt xem
Economic indexes
Vu
Nhu Thang said that In the 2007-2011 period, total budget revenue
accounted for about 29 percent of Vietnam's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP); tax and charge collection accounted for 26.3 percent, lower than that in other regional countries. Government debts and national debts in foreign currency were maintained at a safe rate. Budget deficit was gradually improved in 2010 and 2011 (in 2011, budget deficit equaled to 4.9 percent of Vietnam's GDP against 5.2 percent in the 2001-2010 period).
From
the beginning of 2012 to September 15, total state budget revenue
reached an estimated VND468.55 trillion, equal to 63.3 percent of the
yearly plan, while expenditure
from the state budget was estimated at VND606.35 trillion, equal to
67.1 percent of the yearly plan. "It will be difficult to maintain
state budget revenue at the same level with that in the past five years. This is easy to understand as the economic situation continues to be difficult and the Government has applied tax reduction/exemption/extension policies to help businesses promote production and trade," Vu Nhu Thang emphasized.
World Bank senior economist Habbib Rab said if it is properly calculated, tax and charge collection would account for over 20 percent of Vietnam's GDP, and this is a normal level (currently in some countries this index amounts to 40 percent).
Strengthening fiscal sustainability
Habbib Rab said that many countries in the world such as Australia, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway began to build a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) very early and currently, 132 nations apply MTEF in some forms.
MTEF
puts the annual budget within a medium-term framework (usually three to
five years), under which decisions are made based on a medium-term
strategic vision on public policy priorities. MTEF can be gradually
adjusted in necessary cases to deal with new requirements.
In Vietnam, Ministry of Finance's State Budget Department Deputy Director Vo Thanh Hung said, MTEF has been applied early and on a large scale. In 2003, Vietnam built a pilot MTEF for six ministries and four localities: Hanoi, former Ha Tay, Binh Duong and Vinh Long.
The pilot MTEF has contributed to improving the quality of socioeconomic development and fiscal forecasts, making state budget management more effective. MTEF has proved useful for checking all available budgetary resources and expenditure-related tasks to ensure that the tasks are implemented within the limit of budgetary resources and increase transparency in budgetary management.
However, the State Budget Law and related legal documents still lack stipulations on the implementation of the MTEF. Therefore, to facilitate the implementation of the MTEF, it is necessary to amend and supplement the law. The experience of other countries shows that it is also necessary to improve the capability of finance officials and strategy makers.
Vo Thanh Hung said the Government had assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment
to build the MTEF. The orientations for building this framework were
given in Prime Ministerial Instruction 19/CT-TTg on making
socioeconomic development plans, state budget estimates for 2013 and state
budget investment plan for the 2013-2015 period. The MTEF will be
applied at ministries, central organizations of the Government and localities nationwide./.
Source: VEN.
Source: VEN.
