Participants at the 23rd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee in Hà Nội on Thursday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam made total savings of nearly VNĐ54 trillion (US$2.3 billion) for the State budget last year thanks to thrift and anti-waste practices.

Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc revealed the data when he presented a report on the results of thrift and anti-waste work in 2022 at the 23rd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee in Hà Nội on Thursday morning.

Phớc said although facing many difficulties and challenges last year, thanks to the leadership of the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat; the supervision of the National Assembly; the drastic direction and administration of the Government and the Prime Minister, the implementation of thrift and anti-waste practices achieved many positive results.

However, instances of fraud and tax evasion in business activities on digital platforms, e-commerce sites, and in cross-border trade remained complex, he said.

Vice chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Finance-Budget Committee Phạm Thúy Chinh said the committee highly appreciated the content of the report as well as the initiative and determination of the Government, ministries, and sectors to achieve positive results in thrift and anti-waste efforts.

The Government, ministries and sectors have drastically implemented tasks and solutions, especially in the management and use of the State budget; saving recurrent expenses; cutting unnecessary expenses to supplement resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control and the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Programme, she said.

As a result, the amount saved was nearly VNĐ54 trillion, she said.

Many ministries were reported to have acheived high savings such as the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance, she said.

Shortcomings

Nevertheless, Chinh also pointed out shortcomings in the report.

She said the report was presented in the direction of listing the achieved results without evaluation and analysis of the relationship between the implementation of thrift and anti-waste work and the promulgation of relevant documents.

There was a lack of detailed data to fully and accurately assess the scope, nature, and causes of the situation, she said.

She said that the planning of State budget investment was not close to the implementation capacity, leading to the failure to allocate the assigned capital.

The allocation of capital for the medium-term public investment plan during the 2021-25 period has not yet been completed, she added.

Although the Government has drastically implemented the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Programme, the results are still limited, especially in capital allocation, leading to waste due to unused resources, she said.

In addition, the waste in the implementation of the three National Target Programmes as indicated in the verification report of the committee in 2021 has not been fixed, the implementation is very slow, causing waste, reducing the efficiency of investment capital, and greatly affecting the goals of the programmes, she said.

The progress of capital disbursement for some major national projects is still slow. The report has not clarified the results of the implementation of Resolution No 74/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly.

Recommendations

Chinh said the report should analyse more deeply the shortcomings and causes in thrift and anti-waste practices as well as propose remedial solutions.

It should announce the list of ministries, sectors and localities that are slow to promulgate the programme both last year and this year in mass media, she said.

It needs to quickly develop an implementation plan and determine the time to complete the tasks and solutions specified in Resolution No 74/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly on the implementation of policies and laws, she said.

It also has to fix shortcomings in the allocation of investment capital; construction, handover and put into use major works on schedule according to Resolution No 43/2022/QH15, and in the implementation of major national projects and three national target programmes, she said.

Concluding the session, National Assembly Permanent Vice Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn said that the Standing Committee of the National Assembly highly appreciated the content of the report and the verification of the National Assembly’s Finance-Budget Committee.

He said although suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts, thrift and anti-waste work has been implemented and recorded many positive results.

However, the National Assembly Standing Committee found that there is still wastefulness at different levels, especially in the field of State budget management, public investment, public procurement, land management and public property, he said.

Recently, many administrative procedures have caused trouble, hindering businesses and people, and affecting the development of the country, he said.

Therefore, the committee ordered the report to closely follow the guidelines and resolutions of the Party, the Politburo and the Secretariat and focus on clearly pointing out limitations, causes and responsibilities, he said. — VNS