Slow growth to put pressure on Budget
Workers unload nitrogen fertiliser at Ha Bac Nitrogen Fertilisers and Chemical Company in Bac Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam
HA NOI (VNS)— State budget collection will likely be difficult this year and the Government needs to outline effective measures to ease difficulties in production and recover economic growth.
This opinion was shared by economists at a seminar held yesterday in Ha Noi by the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee.
According to Nguyen Minh Tan, deputy director of the National Assembly Office’s Department of Finance and Budget, the amount collected for the budget in the first four months was far lower than that collected in previous years.
Tan attributed the decline to the slow recovery of the economy and State measures on tax reduction and tax deferral.
Sanjay Kalra, resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in Viet Nam, said that the economic growth of Viet Nam this year would remain low, so the GDP growth rate would be similar to 2012 or even lower. This would put tremendous pressure on the State budget collection.
Nguyen Hong Son, Rector of the University of National Economics, agreed, emphasising that the process of economic restructuring in Viet Nam would be difficult, as it required a huge budget. Economist Tran Du Lich, a deputy of the National Assembly (NA), said that despite the fact that tax collection remained difficult, solutions were needed to promote business and production and support the market.
Lich noted that reducing the corporate income tax to 20 per cent would further decrease the State budget, but said that this was a “necessary measure to spur economic development in the mid-term period”, adding that he “persistently insisted on reducing it to 20 per cent instead of the current 23 per cent”.
In addition, the economist said, the State also needed to ensure that taxes were collected from other business sectors such as import and export as well as individuals.
The National Assembly’s Resolution on the State Budget targets an increase of 10 per cent for the total State budget revenue in 2013 and estimates that State budget spending will increase 8 per cent over the estimated spending in 2012. — VNS