Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung has provided written answers to some issues raised by NA deputies related to public debt, state budget, price management, state-owned enterprises equitisation.
According to the report by the Vietnam Ministry of Finance (MOF), public debt has increased in absolute numbers. However, in relation with GDP, the public debt rate over GDP has not changed much (the rate was 51.7 percent in 2010; 50.1 percent in 2011; 50.8 percent in 2012 and it is estimated to be 54 percent in 2013. The rate is set by National Assembly to be less than 65 percent).
Explaining the public debt increase, Minister Dung said that amid many difficulties, state capital resources gathered internally from the economy for development investment is limited; therefore, it is necessary to mobilise other resources.
The problem is that the pressure of obtaining new loans to repay old ones is considerably high because domestic capital market is still underdeveloped; commercial banks are the main buyers of government bonds, while a large part of their capital structure is no-term or short-term deposits.
Minister Dung also said that based on the current public debt rate over GDP of 54.1 percent and the estimated state budget deficit to 2015 and 2006-2020, it is crucial to conduct the following tasks to ensure the capability of repaying loans, which are:
Fulfil tasks of budget collection required by the National Assembly and the Government in the strategy of developing financial sector by 2020 and the 5-year plan of 2011-2015.
Specifically, state budget revenue must increase by 12-14 percent per year, the state budget must be stably balanced with proper deficit and 20 percent of state budget should be spent for repaying loans. Loans for compensating deficit are used only for development investment and must be managed, effectively used and disbursed in time and in compliance with regulations.
Improve effectiveness of accumulated fund for repaying debt to ensure the resource for loans for on-loans, regularly assess risks of public debt to have timely solutions and effectively restructure it.
Referring to solutions for declining public debt, Minister Dung said that the Government will focus on dealing with loans for on-loans in the process of restructuring and securitizing state owned enterprises.
As for price transferring, MOF said that the activity has made a great loss for state budget, affected investment environment in Vietnam, deformed business results and created unfairness in realizing taxes responsibilities between enterprises and taken over domestic shareholders.
Therefore, taxes authorities have supervised and examined 2,100 enterprises with signs of price transferring and enterprises that have related party transactions, up 66.4 percent over 2012. The result was collecting and fining VND988.1 billion, up 32 percent over 2012; declining taxes depreciation of VND136.9 billion; reducing losses of VND4,192 billion.
For the first 4 months of 2014, tax authorities have examined and inspected 361 loss-reported enterprises with signs of price transferring and enterprises that have related party transactions. The result is collecting and fining VND287.2 billion; declining taxes depreciation of VND17.6 billion; reducing losses of VND1,232.5 billion.
Related to restructuring and equitising state owned budget, MOF has elaborated and submitted a plan to the Prime Minister to issue the decision on restructuring state owned enterprises, focusing on groups and corporations in the period of 2011-2015.
At the same time, the Government has issued a resolution on solutions for promoting securitizing state owned enterprises, withdraw state parts in enterprises. As of the end of March 2014, 81 out of 108 enterprises had their plans approved.
According to reports of ministries, sectors, locals and groups, by the end of May 2014, there were 5,971 enterprises restructured, including 4,066 equitised.
TH
Vietnamese
