At a press conference held in Ha Noi late Thursday to announce results of a review of VNST’s 2017 fiscal year, Vinh said that the agency has “fundamentally completed” tasks under the Government’s action plan.

The agency established a solid development strategy, identified solutions and implemented them, he said.

As of December 15, total State Budget revenue had reached VND1.22 quadrillion (US$54.3 billion), including VND865.7 trillion ($38.5 billion) from domestic sources, VND184.6 trillion ($8.2 billion) from export-import activities, VND43.5 trillion ($1.93 billion) from crude oil, and VND5.6 trillion ($249 million) from international aid, accounting for 90.71 per cent of the yearly estimate.

Vinh also confirmed that the VNST has closely followed guidelines of the Government’s socio-economic development plan for the year as well as the State Budget estimations set by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

On State Budget collection, Nguyen Manh Cuong, head of the VNST’s Administration Division, said that the agency has actively cooperated with local budget collection agencies to make sure the MoF’s budget estimates were maintained.

Cuong said that the agency prioritised daily information exchange between local units and the VNST central collecting division, helping create favourable conditions for taxpayers and make collections promptly and accurately.

Throughout the year, the State Treasury continuously expanded its accounts receivable at five State-owned commercial banks – Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV, Agribank and MBBank – promoting budget collection via the banks’ points of sale system, Vinh said.

He also announced the Treasury’s plan to co-operate with the traffic police and Vietnam Post to co-ordinate fines collection for traffic law violations through the postal system.

According to Vinh, such joint solutions would quickly and greatly contribute to concentrating State revenues sources in a timely manner, assisting taxpayers in making payments, assuring safety and efficiency in State Budget management and minimising cash transactions in the system.

On expenditure control, Cuong said that the VNST had deployed many effective solutions following the August Resolution No 70/NQ-CP on speeding up the public investment capital disbursement process.

The agency’s 2017 controlled expenditure on capital construction was around VND245 trillion ($10.9 billion), equalling 72.1 per cent of the yearly plan, with VND221.7 trillion ($9.8 billion) coming State Budget disbursement alone.

Vu Duc Hiep, Director of the Expenditure Control Department under the State Treasury, said that the Government was also directing investors to speed up the disbursement process for public investment and government bonds.

The VNST has proactively reviewed the 2017 investment capital disbursement plan before the respective investors and project management units, especially for projects where no disbursement has happened by September 30, and others with low disbursement rates, he said.

Throughout the year, the agency regularly submitted reports to the MoF and the Government Office (GO) on the public investment capital situation, clearly stating the reasons for disbursement delays, and proposing solutions.

Cuong said that the GO and the VNST have worked closely together to develop and put into operation the presenting of daily online reports on budget revenue, expenditure data and capital mobilisation.

There has also been a surge in civil servant’s responsibility level at the VNST, as they have been instructed and thoroughly supervised on expenditure control, so that no payment records are left untouched for any reason for longer than three working days at the most, he stated.

In addition, Cuong said, administrative reforms were also given priority and positive results gained.

According to the VNST report, these results include creating favourable conditions for investors and governmental units, implementing inter-bank payment at provincial level nationwide, ensuring safety of State Budget payments, closely co-ordinating with the General Department of Taxation, the General Department of Vietnam Customs and other commercial banks in reforming bilateral and inter-bank payment collection. — VNS