11M State budget revenue down 7.8 pct.

Hanoi (VNA) - State budget revenue in the first 11 months of this year fell 7.8 percent year-on-year to just over 1.26 quadrillion VND (54.58 billion USD), the Ministry of Finance reported on December 8, blaming the economic fallout from COVID-19 for the decline.

The figure represented 83.4 percent of the annual estimate, with central and local budget collections at 77.4 percent and 91.1 percent, respectively, the ministry said.

Domestic collections were down 4 percent against the same period last year, to nearly 1.08 quadrillion VND, or 84.4 percent of the annual plan.

Revenue from crude oil totalled 31.5 trillion VND, a sharp decline of 38.9 percent against a year earlier and equivalent to 89.5 percent of the plan.

Revenue from imports and exports plunged 19.6 percent year-on-year to 161.5 trillion VND, or 77.6 percent of the plan.

State budget expenditure, meanwhile, rose 8.5 percent to close to 1.37 quadrillion VND, equivalent to 78.4 percent of the annual plan.

The ministry said that about 17.9 trillion VND has been spent from the State budget to cover COVID-19 response and financially support businesses and people affected.

More than 4.54 trillion VND has been used to address the aftermath of natural disasters and cope with African swine fever. This includes 1.63 trillion VND allocated to help nine central and Central Highlands provinces respond to the recent devastating flooding and 11 northern provinces deal with the consequences of hail storms, flash flooding, and landslides.

Nearly 32,950 tonnes of rice from the national reserve has been provided to aid natural disaster victims and those stricken by the crop failure./.