On the afternoon of October 7, 2021, the Ministry of Finance held an online conference with localities to assess the disbursement of public investment capital from foreign loans by the Government in the first nine months of 2021. The conference was organized by Thursday. Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha chaired and was attended by representatives of a number of leaders of ministries, central agencies and leaders of provinces and cities.
Disbursement rate has improved but is still very low
Reporting at the conference, Mr. Hoang Hai – Deputy Director of the Department of Debt Management and External Finance, Ministry of Finance said that, according to the approval of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister’s Decision, the total investment capital plan ODA, foreign concessional loans allocated in early 2021 by localities is 63,709 billion VND, of which additional capital targeted by the Central budget (NSTW) is 34,913 billion VND and loans to localities. is 28,796 billion VND.
After the Conference on disbursement of public investment capital from ODA and foreign concessional loans held by the Ministry of Finance in June 2021, the disbursement situation of localities after 9 months of 2021 has improved. significantly compared to the first 5 months of the year. The additional central budget capital with the target of the first 5 months of 2021 is only 1.73% of the estimate, now it has reached 11.51% of the estimate (an increase of 9.78%); loans to the locality, the first 5 months of 2021 was only 1.68% of the estimate, now it has reached 7.78% of the estimate. However, the disbursement speed is still very slow.
Based on the implementation of projects using ODA loans and concessional loans, the Ministry of Finance expects that the disbursement of foreign public investment in 2021 by localities will only reach approximately 36.5% of the plan. allocated capital plan.
Like ministries and sectors, the slow disbursement of ODA and concessional loans by localities is due to the fact that in the first nine months of 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a heavy impact on projects. projects using foreign capital.
In addition to the cause of Covid-19, other problems and reasons leading to the disbursement delay were also caused by reasons such as: Slow completion of procedures for adjusting investment policies, adjusting projects, adjusting agreements. /loan agreement; Slow delivery, lack of medium-term public investment plan; Delivery beyond the registered use demand; The locality is slow, not even allocating detailed capital plans; Late bidding or slow implementation of work and confirmation of completed volume; Late summarizing the application for capital withdrawal; Withdrawal documents that are not eligible for disbursement must be returned…
Assessing the disbursement results of public investment capital from ODA and foreign preferential loans of localities, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha said that low disbursement results of localities will affect socio-economic development task of the country, because public investment capital is one of the important factors contributing to economic growth, development investment spending targets also affect the performance of financial and banking tasks. policy in 2021. Deputy Minister Tran Xuan Ha also emphasized that 2021 is the first year of the 2021-2025 term, if the disbursement progress of 2021 is low, it will affect 2022 and the following years.
Both big cities are asking for capital reduction
Speaking at the conference, Mr. Ha Minh Hai, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee said that in 2021, Hanoi will be assigned 7 ODA projects with a total capital of 7,800 billion VND. As of September 30, according to the State Treasury, Hanoi has controlled spending of 1,361 billion VND, reaching 17.4%. In addition to difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Hai said that the problem of site clearance is a frequent problem of the city. In addition, the high price of construction materials from the beginning of the year also significantly affected the progress of the project. Currently, Hanoi City is reviewing the project implementation and has sent a document to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to adjust the allocated ODA capital, reducing VND 4,500 billion.
Similar to Hanoi, Ms. Pham Thi Hong Ha – Director of the City’s Department of Finance. Currently, the city is implementing 8 projects with a total capital of 121,214 billion VND. The People’s Committee allocates 12,550 billion VND of foreign capital. ODA loans and foreign concessional loans have been confirmed by the State Treasury to have completed 1,621 billion VND, reaching 12.45%, the accounting value of budget revenue and expenditure is 1,283 billion VND, reaching 9.85% of the capital plan. , disbursement of capital withdrawal value, capital return procedures were confirmed by the Ministry of Finance as VND 866 billion, reaching 6.65% of the assigned plan. The disbursement rate of Ho Chi Minh City is still low due to the pandemic’s impact heavily on the city’s socio-economic production and business activities. In addition, these projects are associated with foreign factors from the import of machinery, materials and equipment to the mobilization of experts, workers, contractors, supervision consultants, etc., thus affecting the progress of the solution. echo. In addition, there are a number of reasons that have not been resolved for a long time, related to complicated ODA management procedures, procedures for adjusting investment policies, project extension, etc. a lot of time…
In order to accelerate disbursement, the City People’s Committee has directed the implementation of many solutions in the management and implementation of the public investment plan, preparing to submit to the City People’s Council to adjust the public investment plan in 2021. Accordingly, resolutely cut investment capital for projects with low disbursement rate and delay; supplementing capital plans for urgent projects with the ability to quickly disburse funds to strive to ensure the highest disbursement rate for each project. Ms. Hai also said that due to the complicated epidemic affecting the disbursement progress, Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City proposed to reduce the plan of ODA allocated from the central budget by VND 2,916 billion with 5 projects; reduce the on-lending capital by 11,940 billion dong.
Solutions to promote disbursement of capital plan in 2021
Before the opinions of localities at the Conference, leaders of the Ministry of Finance and representatives of ministries and branches noted and answered to clarify the issues. Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha asked units under the Ministry of Finance to closely coordinate with localities to review and compare to standardize data related to capital disbursement. investment capital from foreign loans. The Deputy Minister also suggested that the provinces and cities review the disbursement ability and implement it from now until the end of the year, on that basis, send an official document requesting the adjustment of the capital plan in 2021 to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance. before October 15 for the two ministries to summarize and report to the Prime Minister. The Deputy Minister also suggested that localities prioritize the allocation of the remaining capital in accordance with the financial mechanism for projects that can be implemented. As for the project owners, the project management boards, the Deputy Minister suggested that it is necessary to focus on implementing the completed work, which has been controlled in accordance with regulations to have a basis to sign the withdrawal application. , do not leave a backlog of the amount that has been controlled for spending but has not been disbursed as at present, especially not to accumulate documents for refund of imprest account spending for a long period to gather disbursement requests. …
**Earlier, this morning (October 7), the Ministry of Finance also held an online conference with ministries and branches to evaluate the disbursement of public investment capital from foreign loans by the Government in the first 9 months of the year. 2021. Based on the results of these Conferences, the Ministry of Finance will summarize and report to the Prime Minister on the disbursement of investment capital from foreign loans, and at the same time make recommendations to improve the situation. Government has direction in the coming time.
T.N
Source: https://mof.gov.vn/webcenter/portal/tttc/pages_r/l/chi-tiet-tin-tin-tuc-tai-chinh?dDocName=MOFUCM210418