The 13th National Assembly’s Standing Committee will consist of 18 members, including a chairman and four deputy chairmen, Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong of the 12th National Assembly said.

Of the four deputies, one will be in charge of the law and judiciary field, one in the economic-financial field, one in socio-cultural field, and one in the defence-security field.

Trong delivered the 12 th NA Standing Committee’s proposal on the structure of the new NA Standing Committee to the first session of the 13th NA in Hanoi .

At the session, the NA adopted the Resolution verifying the eligibility of 500 NA deputies with 99 percent approval.

The NA was presented with a Report on a request for approval of the 2009 State Budget balance sheet by Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh.

The Government in 2009 introduced policies on tax exemption, reduction and rescheduling under the NA Resolution, in order to promote the country’s economic development and reduce taxes on 19 groups of commodities and services, contributing to preventing economic decline and increasing the State Budget collection, the report said.

Head of the NA Committee for Finance and Budget Phung Quoc Hien presented a report on verification of the 2009 State Budget balance sheet, which agreed with the main contents in Ninh’s report.

The report also pointed out shortcomings in the 2009 fiscal year policy, regarding the implementation of policies on tax exemption, reduction and rescheduling which were yet to help many small and medium-sized enterprises escape from difficulties since they could not access incentives on corporate income tax.

The NA Committee for Finance and Budget proposed the NA approve the 2009 State Budget balance sheet, which stated that total revenues stood at 629,187 VND, total expenditures were 715,216 billion VND and overspending was 114,422 billion VND, or 6.9 percent of GDP./.