According to NA deputies, with the state budget deficit of 5% a year and public debt increasing at around 20% a year, it is imperative to cut costs, especially on office building and national festivals and celebrations.
"Among the regular expenses, we can divide them into 3 groups which must be reduced expenses for administrative mechanisms, it means organisations have to cut staff if it wants to raise salaries. The second group is expenses for unnecessary activities, and the third group is expenses for assets including office buildings." - Tran Du Lich, National Assembly Deputy, HCM City.
Tran Du Lich, National Assembly Deputy, HCM City.
In order to balance the source of revenue in the context of high public debt, many deputies also agreed with diversifying bond terms and issuing bonds on international capital markets. However, the bond issue should be more focused on medium and long term tenures more than the short term.
"I agree with this plan as we are having a good chance to issue bonds at low interest, which benefits the state budget." - Tran Hoang Ngan, National Assembly Deputy, HCM City.
"Over recent years, Vietnam’s position has increasingly improved, creating a favourable condition for us to issue bonds overseas. The issue of bonds internationally will help raise funds for our key projects, serving economic development." - Dang Ngoc Tung, National Assembly Deputy, Dong Nai Province.
Dang Ngoc Tung, National Assembly Deputy, Dong Nai Province.
At the session, deputies also proposed several solutions aiming to raise state budget income including dealing with tax debts, employing financial sources from the equitisation of state-owned enterprises. However, all agreed that these funds should be strictly supervised and invested only into effective projects.
