As of December 7 the treasury raised more than 280 trillion VND by auctioning Government bonds, achieving the target for the year. (Photo doanhnghiepdautu.net) Hanoi (VNA) - By December 7, the treasury had raised more than 280 trillion VND by auctioning Government bonds, achieving the target for the year.
But the money raised has been used at a slow pace.
According to a recent announcement by the Vietnam State Treasury, by November only 659.39 billion VND (29.6 million USD) had been used, without including debt repayment, provision of aid, additional expenditure and risk provision. The amount accounted for only 78.8 percent of the year’s spending estimate.
Of the figure, capital expenditure was 217.51 billion VND, making up only 64.3 percent, much lower than in the same period the previous year.
The Ministry of Transport is one of the ministries that did not use even half the amount allocated for 2016.
In fact, it was allocated 25 trillion VND raised from Government bond issuances, but has to date spent only 40 percent of it.
This is diametrically opposite to the situation that existed until a few years ago when ministries would clamour for more funds, which would often not be forthcoming.
Most sectors had great demand for funds to carry out their projects.
A treasury official said the agency was always ready to provide money for projects that merited then. Why then was the disbursement too slow last year?
Many analysts this on the slow progress of public investment plans due to tortuous investment and construction procedures.
There are overlapping, inconsistent, incompatible and even contradictory regulations in documents guiding implementation of the Investment Law and in investment decrees.
Another reason is that the Law on Public Investment took effect only in 2016, meaning many ministries and agencies were struggling to fully understand its sub-laws.
Faced with the situation, the Government issued Decree No 60/NQ-CP on major tasks and solutions to accelerate implementation of and release of funds for public projects.
It requires all ministries and local authorities to review and perfect legal frameworks so that they dovetail with the country’s laws and quickly remove all hindrances to speed up disbursement of funds for public projects to ensure they proceed on schedule.
The treasury for its part has promised to release capital for qualified projects within four days.-VNA
