State Treasury will have to take on challenging tasks next year as public spending is expected to rise, according to Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung.

This statement was made at a conference reviewing the performance of the State Treasury in 2021 and setting tasks for 2022.

Hung said rising government expenditure will require a sound plan of fundraising right from the beginning of next year. Capital control will also need to be improved to deal with new projects from support packages.

Therefore, the State Treasury tasks will be pretty heavy, he stressed.

Under State Budget Plan for 2022, the State will run a budget deficit of around VND372.9 trillion in the fiscal year of 2022, equivalent to 4 per cent of GDP and up 8.5 per cent compared to the projected deficit of 2021.

At the conference, the treasury was also tasked with speeding up administrative reforms, promoting cashless payments and tightening risk control to help customers and agencies tap into the state budget with ease.

The deputy minister also called for more training programmes to keep local treasuries well-informed about new regulations of capital control on public projects. These regulations will come into force on January 1, 2022.

Regarding performance in 2021, the leader of the finance ministry highly praised the treasury for its efforts in settling payments to people in need during the pandemic, which made a substantial contribution to the fight against COVID-19.

By December 15, the State Treasury and its local agencies carried out control on frequent expenditures worth VND883.1 trillion and investment expenditures worth VND302.2 trillion. Through expenditure control, the treasury has also declined payments amounting to VND22.6 billion.

Additionally, the treasury’s bond issuances were met with success as bonds went on sale with lower interest rates, longer maturities and larger volumes.

This is the first year that the State Treasury successfully offered online public services across the board, reaching a rate of 100 per cent online procedures processing. — VNS