The Ministry of Finance will publicise the usage of fuel stabilisation fund and be more effective in budget spending.
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| Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung |
The new minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has said during questions from the public on June 23. "The fuel stabilisation fund is set up from taxpayers' money so people have the right to ask for a transparent system." he said.
Dung said they will publish the management and usage of the fund on the Ministry of Finance's web portal during the first month of each quarter. Dung said, "People can supervise the fund and the fuel prices."
The stabilisation fund is set up to help enterprises to minimise losses without raising fuel prices too much when domestic prices are lower than global prices. However, in the past, even when the world price fell, firms were still being compensated from the fund.
On June 14, the Ministry of Finance allowed firms to increase fuel prices by over VND400 per litre and were compensated from the fund as world prices had been on the rise.
This has raised doubt and concerns from public. Many experts said consumers are only protected when the calculation on fuel prices and commission rates for retailers are controlled and publicised in detail.
Dung also mentioned about measures should be taken to ensure a healthy state budget while firms are in difficulties.
He said in the first five months of 2013, the budget only reached VND299 trillion (USD14 billion), about 36.6% of the expected goal. To deal with the problem, Dung suggested to lower tax duties for VAT, corporate income tax and personal income tax.
As of June 19, the National Assembly agreed to lower the corporate income tax from 25% to 22% start on January 1, 2014. This is said to be the lowest rate in the region. "The budget will have a deficit of VND7 trillion this year and VND36 trillion next year. However, this money will become government capital given to firms so that they'll contribute more to the budget after the tough times." he said.
Tighter control over tax evasion activities such as smuggling or transfer pricing was mentioned along with government's request for authorities to prevent wastefulness.
