Oil and gas sector helps balance State budget hinh anh 1Illustrative image (Source: Vietsov)

Hanoi (VNA) – The oil and gas sector has made considerable contributions to the State budget, experts have said.

According to a Government report on State budget balance in 2017, State budget collection in 2017 exceeded 1.293 quadrillion VND (55.59 billion USD), up 6.7 percent from estimates, mostly due to increases in land use fee, import tax and crude oil sales.

The report said crude oil fetched 49.58 trillion VND (2.13 billion USD), 29.5 percent more than the estimate.

In 2018, the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam)’s domestic crude oil production exceeded the target set by the Government by 675,000 tonnes, contributing to the country’s GDP growth of 7.08 percent.

The firm’s total revenue in 2018 was 626.8 trillion VND, surpassing the yearly target by 18 percent and a year on year rise of 26 percent. It paid 121.3 trillion VND to the State budget, exceeding the yearly goal by 64.3 percent.

Bui Si Loi, deputy head of the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs, said that along with State budget payment, the oil and gas sector has laid a foundation for economic growth in central Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces.

It has also helped ensure power security and sovereignty, while creating jobs, he said.

Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the NA Economic Committee, said the Government should adjust policies to promote the effective operation of oil and gas firms.

Although the world oil and gas market saw a lot of fluctuations in the first three months of 2019, most of PetroVietnam’s production indexes surpassed the plan by 2-8 percent.

Total earnings of the firm in the first quarter of this year reached 162.7 trillion VND, exceeding the plan by 6.3 percent. It paid 23.5 trillion VND to the State budget, 9.2 percent higher than the first quarter’s plan and fulfilling 27 percent of the yearly target.

Statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that in the first four year of 2019, State budget collection was nearly 134 trillion VND, including 111.6 trillion VND of domestic collection.

Notably, collection from crude oil was estimated at 4.7 trillion VND in April and 18.29 trillion VND in four months, equivalent to 41 percent of the yearly projection.-VNA
VNA