State Auditor General: The estimate of revenue from the land is not close, revealing the amount of public debt that Vietnamese people are carrying

Continuing the program of the 3rd session, the XV National Assembly, on the afternoon of May 23, the National Assembly listened to State Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh presenting the audit report on the state budget settlement 2020.

The State Auditor General said that the state budget estimate for 2020 was made in the context of the global outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, natural disasters, severe storms and floods in the Central, Central Highlands, etc. have a great impact on the entire socio-economic life, affect the implementation of state budget revenue and expenditure tasks, beyond the forecast when the Government submits and the National Assembly decides on socio-economic development plans and projections. State budget accounting 2020.

However, under the correct and timely leadership of the Central Committee of the Party, the Politburo, the whole political system got involved; The support of businesses and people has contributed to limiting the shocking and negative impacts on economic growth and state budget revenue and expenditure in 2020.

Economic growth rate (GDP) reached 2.91%, down from the plan of 6.8% but still in the group of positive growth countries; state budget revenue is approximately the estimate, domestic revenue alone exceeds the estimate; State budget expenditure is basically guaranteed to comply with the estimate.

However, through the audit of the State Budget Finalization Report in 2020 and the summary of the main audit results of the audits held in 2021, the State Auditor General also pointed out a number of issues that need to be further related. to the issue of making and assigning estimates; budget compliance; state budget deficit; public debt; State budget settlement must be corrected and overcome in the coming years.

The estimate of land use levy collection is not close, and the budget settlement report is delayed

Specifically, the estimate of land use levy collection is not close to the revenue source, the localities that make the estimate are only 72% of the 2019 estimate, although the central government has assigned a higher estimate than the number of localities. 18.3%, but the implementation of land use collection in 2020 still exceeded the estimate by 80.4%, the large over-estimated collection has taken place for many years.

In addition, the audit results show that there are cases where the capital plan is delayed, adjusted many times, and adjusted after November 15, 2020 is not in accordance with regulations; have not arranged enough or even arranged capital plans to pay for a number of projects that have been completed, handed over and put into use from 2020 or earlier.

Some ministries and central agencies have allotted detailed capital plans for projects on the list of projects that are expected to use the general provision for the medium-term public investment plan for the 2016-2020 period, but then not approved by the Prime Minister. The Government assigned additional medium-term public investment plan.

Some localities have allocated the common reserve fund for the medium-term public investment plan for the 2016-2020 period for 53 newly started projects while not giving priority to the cases specified in Clause 1, Article 2 of Resolution No. 71. /2018/QH14.

State Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh pointed out that, in some ministries and central agencies, the allocation and allocation of bases have not been adequate; failing to allocate all the budget according to regulations; The allocation of regular and irregular cost estimates has not yet ensured compliance with regulations.

19/45 audited localities have allocated budget reserve at the provincial or district level which has not yet ensured the prescribed rate; 02/45 localities assigned expenditure estimates for education – training and vocational training, science and technology activities lower than the estimates assigned by the Central Government.

Along with that, the 2020 settlement is equal to 98.1% of the assigned estimate, of which domestic revenue exceeds 0.2% of the estimate. On the other hand, some main revenues from production and business activities accounted for about 52.5% of total domestic revenue, but they were all short of revenue compared to the assigned estimate.

Regarding state budget expenditure, the audit showed that some ministries, central agencies and localities have low disbursement rate of investment expenditure from foreign capital, which has partly reduced the investment efficiency of the State budget. foreign loans.

In addition, the Government has not promptly reported to the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly to consider the plan to supplement the capital plan as a basis for accounting and settlement according to regulations. As for the outstanding balance of capital construction of projects implemented before 2015 but in 2021, only a part will be arranged for payment; Some localities have large outstanding loans for capital construction and incur capital construction debts in 2021.

According to the report of Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh, State budget deficit in 2020 is 216,405.59 billion VND, equal to 3.44% of realized GDP, equal to the rate of overspending according to the estimate at the beginning of the year and lower than the level of 5.41% of GDP according to Resolution No. 128/2020/ QH14; in which the final budget deficit is 213,088.59 billion dong, down 4,711.4 billion dong compared to the estimate, the local budget deficit is 3,316.99 billion dong, down 13,683 billion dong compared to the estimate.

Public debt outstanding as of December 31, 2020 was VND 3,520,601.39 billion, up 6.02% compared to 2019, equaling 55.94% of GDP (below the ceiling of 65% of GDP). Thus, the public debt per capita is 35.1 million VND/person and tends to increase over the years (in 2018 it was 31.69 million VND/person; in 2019 it was 33.62 million VND/person).

Recommendations of the State Audit

On the basis of auditing the final settlement of the state budget in 2020, the State Auditor proposed the Government and the Prime Minister to direct ministries, central agencies, localities and audited units to fully implement, timely audit conclusions and recommendations, in which: Financial treatment to increase revenues and reduce state budget expenditures of VND 25,396.3 billion; other treatment 41,567.4 billion dong; review to cancel or replace, amend, supplement, and issue new 198 documents that are inconsistent with the law or not in accordance with reality; review and handle collective and individual responsibility for the defects and errors mentioned in the audit report of each audit performed in 2021.

Along with that, direct the Ministry of Finance to review, examine, determine causes and responsibilities and report to competent authorities for timely handling according to regulations for a number of localities that have assigned budget estimates from reserve sources. the central budget in 2020 for projects that have not yet met regulations; the amount of foreign capital that has been disbursed for capital construction investment from 2019 or earlier has not yet been accounted and settled into the state budget, and the amount of non-refundable aid has been received but has not been estimated over the past year. years.

In addition, the organization reviews and corrects the limitations in advising the Prime Minister to assign estimates from the central budget reserve in 2020 in Decision No. 118/QD-TTg. in accordance with regulations on the authority of the agency in charge of the advisory; …

In addition, the State Audit also proposed to the Ministry of Finance plan and Investment report to the Prime Minister to direct a number of ministries, central and local agencies to review and correct limitations such as detailed allocation of plans, plan capital exceeds the approved capital in the plan plan medium-term public investment, not suitable for the specified subjects, not assigned by the Prime Minister to supplement the next one plan medium-term public investment; contract plan slow capital and plan adjustment plan capital many times, even adjusted after 11/15/2020, contract plan contingency capital plan medium-term public investment which, at the time of delivery, are not on the next list plan medium-term public investment.