Integrated document No. 26/VBHN-VPQH dated February 26, 2025 Law on State budget

THE OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY --------	THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM Independence - Freedom - Happiness ---------------
No. 26/VBHN-VPQH	Hanoi, February 26, 2025

 

LAW

ON STATE BUDGET

The Law on State Budget No. 83/2015/QH13 dated June 25, 2015 of the National Assembly is amended by:

1. The Law on Enterprises No. 59/2020/QH14 dated June 17, 2020 of the National Assembly, which has been effective since January 01, 2021;

2. The Law No. 56/2024/QH15 dated November 29, 2024 of the National Assembly on amendments to the Law on Securities, Law on Accounting, Law on Independent Audit, Law on State Budget, Law on Management and Use of Public Property, Law on Tax Administration, Law on Personal Income Tax, Law on National Reserves, and Law on Penalties for Administrative Violations, which has been effective since January 01, 2025.

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

The National Assembly hereby promulgates the Law on State Budget.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Law provides for the formulation, implementation, audit, finalization, and supervision of state budget; responsibilities and entitlements of agencies, organizations, units, and individuals in the field of state budget.

Article 2. Regulated entities

1. State agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations.

2. Socio-politico-professional organizations, social organizations and socio-professional organizations receiving state budget-derived funding for covering costs of performing tasks assigned by the State.

3. Public service providers.

4. Other organizations and individuals related to the state budget.

Article 3. Application of law

1. The formulation, implementation, audit, finalization, and supervision of state budget must comply with this Law and other relevant laws.

2. In case a treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory contains provisions different from those of this Law, regulations of such treaty prevails.

Article 4. Definitions

For the purposes of this Law, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. State budget deficit includes deficit of the central government budget and deficit of provincial budgets. Central government budget deficit is the positive difference between total central government budget expenditure, exclusive of principal repayment) and total central government budget revenue. Provincial budget deficit is the aggregation of budget of each central-affiliated city or province, which is the positive difference between total budget expenditure, exclusive of principal repayment and total budget revenue of each central-affiliated city or province.

2. Commitment to allocate funding under state budget expenditure estimate means a competent authority’s approval for allocating funding included in estimate of state budget expenditures of the subsequent year or subsequent years to a program, project, or task.

3. National reserve expenditure means part of the state budget spending duties to purchase reserved goods in accordance with the law on national reserve.

4. Development investment expenditure means part of the state budget spending duties, including expenditure on investment in fundamental construction and some other investment tasks as prescribed by law.

5. Expenditure on investment in fundamental construction means part of the state budget spending duties to execute socio-economic infrastructure programs/projects and programs/projects serving socio-economic development.

6. Recurrent expenditure means part of the state budget spending duties to ensure the operation of the State apparatus, political organizations, socio-political organizations, support the operation of other organizations and perform other regular tasks of the State in terms of socio-economic development and assurance of national defense and security.

7. Debt repayment expenditure means part of the state budget spending duties to repay due debts including principal, interest, fees and other costs incurred from the loan.

8. State budget reserve means an entry of the unallocated budget expenditure estimate which is decided by a competent authority at each level of the budget.

9. Budget estimate unit level I means a budget estimate unit to which the budget estimate is allocated by the Prime Minister or the People’s Committee.

10. Budget estimate unit means an agency, organization or unit to which the budget estimate is allocated by a competent authority.

11. Budget-using unit means a budget estimate unit that is assigned to directly manage and use the budget.

12. Budget remainder means the positive difference between the total budget revenue and total budget expenditure of each level of the budget at the end of a budget year.

13. Local government budget means state budget revenues which local government authorities are given to receive, transfers from central government budget, and state budget expenditures being part of the local government authorities’ spending duties.

14. State budget means all the expenditures and revenues of the State that are estimated and realized over a certain period of time as decided by competent state authorities in order to perform the functions and tasks of the State.

15. Central government budget means state budget revenues which the central government authorities are given to receive and state budget expenditures being part of the central government authorities’ spending duties.

16. Decentralization of power to manage budget means determination of scope, responsibility, and powers of authorities at all levels and budget estimate units in state budget management in a manner that aligns with the decentralization of socio-economic management power.

17. Financial reserve fund means a fund of the State derived from state budget and other financial sources as prescribed by law.

18. State budget fund means the entire amounts of the State, including loans on the accounts of state budget at all levels at a certain time.

19. State off-budget financial fund means a fund which is established by a competent authority and operates independently from the state budget; its revenues and spending duties are meant to fulfill certain tasks prescribed by law.

20. Budget balancing transfer means an amount additionally allocated from a higher level budget to a lower level budget in order for it to balance its budget and fulfill its tasks.

21. Targeted transfer means an amount additionally allocated from a higher level budget to a lower level budget to support the implementation of a specific program, project or task.

22. Figures for budget revenue and expenditure estimate examination means the state budget revenue and expenditure figures which are notified by competent authorities to various levels of budgets, agencies, organizations and units as a basis for formulation of annual state budget estimates and 03-year finance-state budget plans.

23. Local government budget stabilization period means a 02-year period during which the percentage (%) of revenue sharing among various levels of budgets and the budget-balancing transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets remains unchanged, which coincides with the 05-year socio-economic development plan period or which is decided by the National Assembly.

24. Percentage (%) of revenue sharing among various levels of budgets means the percentage (%) of the amount which each level of the budget is permitted to retain and the total amount of revenues shareable among various levels of budgets.

Article 5. Scope of state budget

1. State budget revenues include:

a) All revenues from taxes and charges;

b) All revenues from fees for services provided by a state agency; predetermined funding for covering its operating expenses shall be deducted from the collected revenues; fees for services provided by public service providers and state-owned enterprises that are transferred to state budget as prescribed by law;

c) Grant aid provided by governments of other countries, overseas organizations and individuals for Vietnam’s Government and local governments;

d) Other revenues prescribed by law.

2. State budget expenditures include:

a) Development investment expenditure;

b) National reserve expenditure;

c) Recurrent expenditure;

d) Interest repayment expenditure;

dd) Expenditure on aid provision;

e) Other expenditures prescribed by law.

3. The State budget deficit.

4. Total state budget loans, including loans for offsetting deficit and repayment of principal of the state budget.

Article 6. State budget system

1. State budget consists of central government budget and local government budgets.

2. A local government budget consists of budgets of local authorities at various levels.

Article 7. Principles of balancing the state budget

1. Revenues from taxes, fees, charges, and other revenues prescribed by law must be fully included in the state budget balance without association with any specific spending duty. For any revenue which needs to be attached to a specific spending duty as prescribed by law, such spending duty shall be covered by the corresponding revenue in the budget expenditure estimate. The promulgation of budget collection policies must adhere to the principle of balancing the budget in medium and long terms balance of budget and ensure the implementation of adherence to international integration commitments.

2. The state budget shall be balanced on the principle that the total revenue from taxes, fees and charges is higher than total recurrent expenditure with increasing savings for development investment; if the deficit still exists, the deficit must be smaller than the development investment expenditure in order to aim for a balanced budget; special cases shall be submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for its consideration and decision. Budget surplus, if any, shall be sued to repay principal of the state budget and interests thereon.

3. Loans for offsetting the state budget deficit may only be used for development investment, not for recurrent expenditures.

4. The central government budget deficit shall be offset with the following sources:

a) Domestic loans through issuance of government bonds, national construction bonds and other domestic loans in accordance with law;

b) Foreign loans granted by foreign governments and international organizations and proceeds from the issuance of government bonds on the international market, excluding on-lending loans.

5. Local government budget deficit:

a) Only provincial budgets may have deficit; the local government budget deficit may only be used for investment in projects under midterm public investment plans already decided by provincial-level People’s Councils;

b) Local government budget deficit shall be offset with domestic loans from issuance of Government bonds, on-lending loans granted by the Government, and other domestic loans as prescribed by law;

c) Local government budget deficit shall be aggregated with the state budget deficit and decided by the National Assembly.  The Government shall elaborate on cases in which the local government budget deficit is permitted in order to ensure the solvency of localities and suit the total deficit of the state budget.

6. Loan balance of local government budgets:

a) For Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, it must not exceed 60% of the local government budget revenue they may retain as decentralized;

b) For a locality permitted to retain a local government budget revenue higher than the recurrent expenditure of the local government budget, it must not exceed 30% of the budget revenue it may retain as decentralized;

c) For a locality permitted to retain a local government budget revenue lower than or equal to the recurrent expenditure of the local government budget, it must not exceed 20% of the budget revenue it may retain as decentralized.

Article 8. Principles of state budget management

1. The state budget shall be managed in a uniform, democratic, effective, thrifty, transparent and fair manner; such management shall be assigned and decentralized; powers of state management agencies at all levels shall be associated with their responsibilities.

2. All budget expenditures and revenues must be estimated and fully aggregated with the state budget.

3. Budget revenues must comply with regulations of tax laws and collection regimes as prescribed by law.

4. Budget expenditures may be made only after the estimate is allocated by a competent authority and must comply with spending regimes, standards and norms prescribed by competent state agencies. Various levels of government budgets, budget estimate units, budget-using units may not be used for spending duties when financial sources and budget expenditure estimates are unavailable, thereby leading to the lack of funding for fundamental construction volumes and recurrent spending duties.

5. Priority shall be given to allocating budget for implementation of guidelines and policies of the Communist Party and the State on economic development, poverty reduction; ethnic policies; achievement of gender equality objectives; agricultural and rural development of agriculture, education, healthcare, science and technology, and other important policies from time to time.

6. Budget shall be allocated to undertake socio-economic development tasks; ensure national defense and security, implement foreign policies and cover operating costs of the state apparatus.

7. The state budget shall cover operating costs of political organizations and socio-political organizations.

8. Socio-politico-professional organizations, social organizations and socio-professional organizations shall bear their own operating costs and receive support from the state budget for tasks assigned by the State as per regulations of the Government.

9. Repayment of due interest being part of spending duties of the state budget must be made.

10. Decisions on investment and expenditures on investment in state budget-funded programs, tasks and projects must be conformable with provisions of the Law on Public Investment and relevant laws. Programs, tasks and projects which are not included in the midterm public investment plan covered by annual increase in revenues, unused amount of planned funding for expenditures (as a result of decrease in expenses), and reserve of state budget shall be subject to provisions of Articles 10 and 59 of this Law.

The Government shall stipulate procedures and processes of investment in and implementation of these programs, tasks and projects, ensuring that they are consistently and effectively managed and properly serve their intended purposes.

10a. The following state budget expenditures are covered by two funding sources (funding for public investment and funding for recurrent expenditures), including: procurement, repair, renovation and upgradation of property and equipment; leasing of goods and services; repair, renovation, upgradation, expansion and new construction of work items of existing investment projects, and other necessary tasks.

The Government shall elaborate this clause.

11. The state budget does not subsidize operating costs of off-budget financial funds.  In case the state budget subsidizes charter capital of a fund as prescribed by law, the provision of subsidies must be within the capacity of state budget and be carried out only when the following conditions are satisfied: the fund is established and operates in accordance with law; is financially independent; has its revenue sources and spending duties different from those of the state budget.

Article 9. Principles of decentralizing power to manage revenue sources, spending duties and relationships between various levels of budgets

1. The power of central government budget and local government budget at each level over specific revenue sources and spending duties shall be decentralized.

2. The central government budget plays a pivotal role, ensuring the performance of national spending duties, supporting localities that are unable to balance their budgets, and providing support to localities according to clause 3 Article 40 of this Law.

3. Power of the local government budget over revenue sources is decentralized to take the initiative in their decentralized spending duties. Provincial People’s Councils shall decide the decentralization of powers over revenue sources and spending duties among local government budgets at all levels in a manner that suits the decentralization of powers over socio-economic management, national defense and security and managerial capacity of each level in their provinces.

4. The spending duties of the budget at a level shall be covered by such budget; if the promulgation and implementation of a new policy or regime result in an increase in the budget expenditure, solutions shall be in place to guarantee financial sources suitable for the balancing capacity of the budget at each level; the decision to invest in programs and projects funded by the state budget must not lie outside the scope of the decentralized budgets.

5. In case a state agency of a higher level budget authorizes a state agency of a lower level budget to perform its spending duty, the former shall allocate and assign a budget estimate to the latter to perform the spending duty. The agency that receives the authorized funding must submit a statement of such funding to the authorizing agency.

6. Revenues to be shared among budgets at various levels and transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets must be shared by a percentage (%) in a way that ensures fairness and balanced development among regions and localities.

7. During a budget stabilization period:

a) The percentage of revenue sharing among budgets at various levels shall remain unchanged;

b) On an annual basis, competent authorities shall rely on the balancing capacity of higher-level budgets to decide to increase budget-balancing transfers from higher-level budgets to lower-level budgets decided in the first year of the period;

c) Targeted transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets shall be determined according to the budget allocation principles, criteria and norms, budget spending regimes, standards and norms; capacity of higher level budgets and budget-balancing capacity of each lower level locality;

d) Localities may use annual increases in the revenues which they are entitled to as decentralized to increase expenditures on socio-economic development and national defense and security maintenance. Increases in revenue compared to the estimate shall comply with clause 2 Article 59 of this Law.

In special cases where there is a new source of revenue from a new project which is put to operation during the budget stabilization period, resulting in a considerable increase in the local government budget revenue, the increase shall be transferred to the higher level budget. The Government shall request the National Assembly or the provincial People’s Committee shall request the provincial People’s Council to decide to collect the aforementioned revenue increase and allocate part of it as targeted transfer to the lower level budget as per point d clause 3 Article 40 of this Law so as to support investment in local infrastructure under projects approved by competent authorities;

dd) If the local government budget revenue is smaller than the budget estimate for objective reasons, clause 3 Article 59 of this Law shall apply.

8. After each budget stabilization period, localities shall improve their capacity to balance and develop their budgets themselves, gradually reduce the ratio of budget-balancing transfers from higher level budgets to the total local government budget expenditure or increase the percentage (%) of amount transferred to higher level budgets for revenues shared among various levels of budgets to increase resources for higher level budgets to perform national spending duties and facilitate harmonious development among localities.

9. It is not permitted to use the budget at one level to pay for performance of tasks of another and the budget of one locality to pay for performance of tasks of another, except the following cases:

a) The lower-level budget has to provide support to their superior units located in the locality when is needed to urgently mobilize higher-level forces in the event of a natural disaster, catastrophe, disease or other emergencies so as to stabilize the socio-economic situation, security and social order and safety in the locality;

b) Superior units located in the locality performs their functions together with some tasks at the request of their inferior units;

c) Budget reserve of a locality is used to support other localities in serious disaster or catastrophe recovery.

d) Use of a local-government budget’s funding for development investment expenditures for financing investment projects on construction of infrastructure facilities in that locality which are to be funded by its superior budget, assisting other local governments in executing key projects and works or those improving regional, national or international connectivity and having positive effects on the socio-economic development, and other important tasks must be within the budget balancing capacity, and not adversely influence the performance of tasks to be covered by that local government budget.

The Government shall elaborate this point.

10. In case implementation of a treaty results in a decrease in the central government budget revenue, the Government shall request the National Assembly to adjust the revenue sharing between the central government budget and local government budgets in order to define the leading role of the central government budget.

Article 10. State budget reserve

1. The reserve is 2% - 4% of total budget expenditure at each level.

2. State budget reserve may be spent on:

a) Prevention, control and remediation of consequences of natural disasters, catastrophes and diseases, and famine relief; performance of important national defense and security tasks, and other necessary tasks being part of spending duties of the budget but not yet included in the budget estimate;

b) Provision of support for lower level budgets for performance of the tasks mentioned in point a of this clause if the lower level budget reserve has been used up but the demand still fails to be met;

c) Provision of support to other localities as prescribed in point c clause 9 Article 9 of this Law.

3. Authority to decide the use of state budget reserve:

a) The Government shall provide for the authority to decide the use of central government budget reserve, submit periodic reports on the use of central government budget reserve to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting;

b) People’s Committees shall decide the use of their budget reserve, submit periodic reports to the Standing Body of the People’s Councils and People’s Councils of the same level at its nearest meeting.

Article 11. Financial reserve funds

1. The Government, People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities (hereinafter referred to as “provinces”) shall establish financial reserve funds from sources of increased revenues, budget remainders, allocations to in annual budget expenditure estimate and other financial sources. The balance of the financial reserve fund at each level must not exceed 25% the annual budget expenditure estimate of the same level.

2. Financial reserve funds are used in the following cases:

a) Make advance payment to the budget to meet spending needs according to the budget expenditure estimate before aggregating enough revenue. The advance must be reimbursed within the budget year;

b) In case state budget revenues collected or loans taken to offset budget deficit fail to reach the estimate level decided by the National Assembly or the People’s Council, and budget reserve has been used up but is still not sufficient for the prevention, control and remediation of consequences of widespread and serious natural disasters, catastrophes or diseases or performance of national defense and security tasks or other urgent tasks outside the estimates, the financial reserve fund may be used to meet these spending needs; however, the amount used in the year must not exceed 70% of the opening balance of the fund.

3. The Government shall decide the authority to decide the use of financial reserve funds.

Article 12. Conditions for collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures

1. The collection of state budget revenues shall comply with regulations of this Law, tax laws and other regulations of law on collection of state budget revenues.

2. State budget expenditures may be paid only after they are included in a given budget estimate, except for the case in Article 51 of this Law; are decided by the heads of budget-using units, project owners or authorized persons, and satisfy all conditions in each of the following cases:

a) The conditions prescribed by the laws on public investment and construction, for fundamental construction expenditures;

b) Complying with budget spending regimes, standards and norms prescribed by competent state agencies, for current expenditures; complying with internal spending regulations and conforming to the assigned budget estimates, for agencies and units permitted by competent authorities to exercise autonomy and self-responsibility for their payrolls and funding;

c) The conditions prescribed by the law on national reserves, for national reserve expenditures;

d) For contract packages under the tasks, programs or projects for which bidding needs to be organized to select contractors to provide consultancy services, supply goods or conduct construction and installation activities, it is required to organize bidding as per the bidding law;

dd) Complying with regulations on prices or charges and fees promulgated by competent agencies, for expenditures for work performed under orders placed or plans assigned by the State.

Article 13. Accounting and finalization of state budget revenues and expenditures

1. State budget revenues and expenditures shall be accounted for in Vietnamese dong.  State budget revenues and expenditures in foreign currencies must be converted into Vietnamese dong at the exchange rate prescribed by a competent authority to account for state budget revenues and expenditures prescribed at the time such revenues or expenditures arise.

2. State budget revenues and expenditures must be sufficiently, promptly, and properly accounted for and finalized.

3. The accounting and finalization of the state budget shall be conducted uniformly according to the state accounting regime, state budget entries and this Law.

4. Documents about state budget revenues and expenditures must be issued, used, and managed in accordance with law.

Article 14. Budget year

A budget year begins on January 01 and ends on December 31 of the calendar year.

Article 15. Disclosure of the state budget

1. State budget estimates that have been submitted to the National Assembly or People’s Councils; state budget estimates that have been approved by competent authorities; reports on state budget implementation; state budget final accounts ratified by the National Assembly or People’s Councils; information about the estimation, implementation and final accounts of budgets of budget estimate units, organizations funded by state budget, fundamental construction programs and projects funded by state budget must be disclosed in accordance with regulations below:

a) Contents to be disclosed include: data and explanatory reports on state budget estimates submitted to the National Assembly or People’s Councils, estimates decided by competent authorities; information on state budget implementation and final accounts; results of implementation of recommendations of the State Audit Office of Vietnam; except for detailed data and explanatory reports in the fields of national defense, security, and national reserve;

b) State budget shall be published by one or more methods as follows: announcement at meetings; posting at working offices of agencies, organizations and units; issuance of publications; issuance of written notifications to relevant agencies, organizations, units and individuals; publishing on websites; announcement through the mass media;

c) Every state budget estimate report shall be disclosed within 05 working days from the date on which it is sent by the Government to National Assembly deputies or by a People’s Committee to People’s Council deputies.

Reports on state budget estimates decided by competent authorities and statements of state budget final accounts ratified by competent authorities, and reports on state budget audit results or results of implementation of recommendations of the State Audit Office of Vietnam must be disclosed within 30 days from the date on which they are issued.

Quarterly and biannual reports on state budget implementation must be disclosed within 15 days from the end of each quarter or six-month period.

Annual reports on state budget implementation shall be disclosed when they are submitted by the Government to the National Assembly at the mid-year session of the following year.

2. Disclosure of state budget-related procedures:

a) Collecting agencies, finance agencies and State Treasuries shall disclose state budget-related procedures;

b) Contents to be disclosed include: regulations on processes and procedures for declaration, collection, payment, exemption, reduction, extension and refund of revenues; advances, amounts allocated and paid to the state budget;

c) The disclosure may be carried out by posting at transaction places and on websites of the aforementioned agencies.

3. Disclosed contents must be adequate according to criteria and forms prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

4. Responsible agencies must disclose information as specified in clause 1 and clause 2 of this Article, if they fail to disclose information in an adequate and timely manner, they shall be sanctioned in accordance with law.

5. The Government shall elaborate on the state budget disclosure.

Article 16. Supervision of state budget by the public

1. The state budget shall be supervised by the public. Vietnamese Fatherland Front Committees at all levels shall preside over organizing the supervision of state budget by the public. The supervision of state budget by the public shall cover:

a) Adherence to regulations of law on management and use of state budget;

b) Implementation of annual state budget estimates;

c) Disclosure of the state budget according to Article 15 of this Law.

2. The Government shall elaborate on supervision of state budget by the public.

Article 17. 05-year financial plans

1. A 05-year financial plan means a financial plan formulated for a 05-year period together with a 05-year socio-economic development plan. The 05-year financial plan must specify overall and specific  finance-state budget objectives of state budget and state finance; major orientations for state budget and state finance; levels and structures of domestic revenues, revenue from crude oil, revenue from export and import; levels and structures of development investment expenditure, debt repayment expenditure and recurrent expenditure; orientations for budget deficit; limits of national foreign debts, public debts, government debts; major solutions for implementation of the plan.

2. A 05-year financial plan shall be used for:

a) Achieving socio-economic development objectives of the country, sectors, fields, and localities; balancing and effectively using public financial resources and the state budget in the medium term; promoting the disclosure and transparency of the state budget;

b) Forming a basis for competent authorities to consider and decide state budget-funded medium-term investment plans;

c) Orientating the making of annual state budget estimates and 03-year finance-state budget plans.

3. 05-year financial plans include national 05-year financial plan and 05-year financial plans of provinces and central-affiliated cities.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall preside over formulating the national 05-year financial plan and submitting it to the Prime Minister for reporting to the National Assembly; Departments of Finance shall formulate 05-year financial plans of their provinces and submit them to provincial People’s Committees for reporting to People’s Councils for consideration and decision at the same time the budget estimate of the first year of the plan period is submitted.

5. The Government shall elaborate on the formulation of 05-year financial plans.

Article 18. Prohibited acts in the field of state budget

1. Abusing positions or powers to appropriate state budget revenue sources or irresponsibility that causes losses to state budget revenue sources.

2. Collecting state budget revenues in breach of the tax laws and other regulations on collection of budget revenues; distributing revenue sources between various levels of government budgets in breach of regulations; retaining state budget revenues in contravention of regimes; imposing unlawful charges.

3. Spending without estimates, except the case prescribed in Article 51 of this Law; spending against the assigned budget estimates; spending against spending regimes, standards and norms or for improper purposes; setting unlawful expenditures.

4. Deciding investment in programs and projects funded by state budget ultra vires or without identifying capital sources for implementation.

5. Unlawfully taking loans; taking loans beyond the balancing capacity of budgets.

6. Using state budget funds to unlawfully grant loans, advance or contribute capital.

7. Delaying the payment of budget expenditures while all conditions prescribed by law have been satisfied.

8. Doing accounting against accounting regulations and state budget entries.

9. Making and submitting state budget estimates or state budget final accounts behind schedule.

10. Unlawfully ratifying or approving state budget final accounts.

11. Disbursing the state budget fund at a state treasury to pay for expenditures not yet included in the budget estimate decided by a competent authority, except cases of temporary allocation and advance payment from budget estimate of the subsequent year as prescribed in Articles 51 and 57 of this Law.

12. Other prohibited acts in the field of state budget as per relevant laws.

Chapter II

STATE BUDGET-RELATED TASKS AND POWERS OF STATE AGENCIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS

Article 19. Tasks and powers of the National Assembly

1. Make and amend laws on finance - state budget.

2. Decide basic policies on finance - state budget; impose, change, or abolish taxes; decide safety limits on national debts, public debts and government debts.

3. Decide 05-year financial plans.

4. Decide state budget estimates:

a) Total state budget revenue, including domestic revenue, revenue from crude oil, revenue from export and import, and receipt of grant aid;

b) Total state budget expenditure, including central government budget expenditure and local government budget expenditure, categorized as development investment expenditure, national reserve expenditure, recurrent expenditure, interest repayment expenditure, transfers to the financial reserve fund, budget reserve. Expenditure on development investment and recurrent expenditure include specific expenditures on education - training, vocational training; science and technology;

c) State budget deficit, including the central government budget deficit and local government budget deficit specific to each locality; sources for offsetting the state budget deficit;

dd) Total loan of state budget, including loans for offsetting state budget deficit and loans for repayment of principal of state budget.

5. Decide the allocation of the central government budget:

a) Total expenditure covered by the central government budget, including allocated and unallocated amounts; development investment expenditures sorted by sectors; recurrent expenditures sorted by sectors; national reserve expenditures; expenditure on interest repayment and aid provision; transfers to financial reserve fund; budget reserves;

b) Estimates of development investment expenditure, recurrent expenditure, national reserve expenditure and expenditure on aid provision of each ministry, ministerial agency, governmental agency and other central agencies by each sector;

c) Transfers from the central government budget to each local government budget, including budget-balancing transfers and targeted transfers.

5a. The Government is assigned to arrange and allocate expenditure estimates in respect of unallocated amounts specified in point a clause 5 of this Article in a timely, efficient and effective manner that ensures compliance with regulations of law, and submit quarterly reports thereon to the Standing Committee of National Assembly, and also to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting.

6. Decide the percentage (%) of sharing between the central government budget and each local government budget with regard to the revenues specified in clause 2 Article 35 of this Law.

7. Decide guidelines on investment in National target programs and projects of national importance funded by state budget.

8. Decide to adjust state budget estimates where necessary.

9. Ratify state budget final accounts.

10. Supervise the implementation of the state budget, basic policies on finance - state budget, resolutions of the National Assembly on the state budget.

11. Annul documents issued by the State President, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister, the People’s Supreme Court, the People’s Supreme Procuracy on finance - state budget that contravene the Constitution, laws, and resolutions of the National Assembly.

Article 20. Tasks and powers of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly

1. Promulgate ordinances and resolutions on finance - budget in accordance with law.

2. Offer opinions on bills, reports, and other projects on finance - state budget submitted to the National Assembly by the Government.

3. Promulgate a Regulation on formulation and verification of and decision on state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plans, and ratification of state budget final accounts.

4. Offer opinions on regulations on important budget spending regimes which are within a wide sphere of influence in relation to the performance of national socio-economic tasks, which are submitted by the Government.

5. Decide:

a) Principles, criteria, and norms for allocation of state budget;

b) Inclusion of the increase in state budget revenues in the budget estimates; allocation and use of increase in revenues and decrease in expenditures of the central government budget for reporting to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting.

6. Supervise the implementation of laws and resolutions of the National Assembly; ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on finance and state budget.

7. Suspend the implementation of legislative documents promulgated by the Government, the Prime Minister on finance - budget that contravene the Constitution, laws, resolutions of the National Assembly; propose the annulment of such documents at the nearest meeting of the National Assembly.

8. Annul legislative documents promulgated by the Government and the Prime Minister on finance - budget that contravene ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

9. Annul resolutions of provincial People’s Councils on finance - budget which contravene the Constitution, laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

Article 21. Tasks and powers of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly

1. Verify bills, ordinance projects, reports and other projects on finance - budget as assigned by the National Assembly or the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

2. Preside over verifying state budget estimates, central government budget allocation plans, state budget estimate adjustment plans, state budget implementation reports, state budget final accounts, state budget allocation principles, criteria and norms, and plans for use of increase in revenues and decrease in expenditures of the central government budget, which are submitted by the Government to the National Assembly or the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

3. Verify important budget spending regimes which are within a wide sphere of influence in relation to the performance of national socio-economic tasks, which are submitted by the Government to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

4. Supervise the implementation of laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on finance - budget; supervise the implementation of the state budget and finance and budget policies.

5. Supervise legislative documents of the Government, Prime Minister, Ministers, and heads of ministerial agencies, and joint legislative documents of competent central agencies on finance - budget.

6. Put forward issues pertaining to finance - budget.

Article 22. Tasks and powers of the Ethnic Minorities Council and other Committees of the National Assembly

1. Within the bounds of their tasks and powers, cooperate with the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee and related agencies of the Government in verifying bills, ordinance projects, state budget estimates, central government budget allocation plans, state budget estimate adjustment plans, state budget implementation reports, state budget final accounts, and other projects and reports on finance - budget, which are submitted by the Government to the National Assembly or the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

2. Supervise the implementation of laws, resolutions of the National Assembly, resolutions of Standing Committee of the National Assembly on state budget - finance; supervise the implementation of state budget and state budget - finance policies in the fields under their charge.

3. Put forward issues pertaining to finance – budget in the fields under their charge.

Article 23. Tasks and powers of the State Audit Office of Vietnam

1. Audit the state budget and report audit results to the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly; send audit reports to the State President, Government, Prime Minister, Ethnic Minorities Council, Committees of the National Assembly, and other related agencies in accordance with the Law on State Audit.

2. Submit reports on the audit of state budget final accounts to the National Assembly for consideration and ratification of state budget final accounts.

3. Join the Finance and Budget Committee and other agencies of the National Assembly and the Government in considering and verifying state budget estimate reports, central government budget allocation plans, and plans for adjusting state budget estimates.

Article 24. Tasks and powers of the State President

1. Announce laws and ordinances on finance - budget.

2. Exercise tasks and powers prescribed by the Constitution and laws in the negotiation, conclusion and ratification of treaties on finance - budget, or submission thereof to the National Assembly for ratification.

3. Request the Government to hold meetings on state budgetary and financial where necessary.

Article 25. Tasks and powers of the Government

1. Submit to the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly bills, ordinance projects and other reports and projects on finance - budget; promulgate legislative documents on finance - budget under its authority.

2. Formulate and submit to the National Assembly 05-year financial plans and 03-year finance-state budget plans.

3. Formulate and submit to the National Assembly annual state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plans; adjusted state budget estimates where necessary.

4. According to the National Assembly’s resolutions on state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plans, assign budget revenue collection and spending duties to each ministry, ministerial agency, Governmental agencies and other central agencies according to point b clause 5 Article 19 of this Law; budget revenue collection and spending duties and deficit of each locality, percentage (%) of revenue sharing between the central government budget and each local government budget with regard to shareable revenues and transfers from the central government budget to each province or central-affiliated city according to points a, b, c and d clause 4, point c clause 5 and clause 6 Article 19 of this Law.

5. Perform uniform management of the state budget, ensuring tight cooperation among sectoral and local management agencies in state budget implementation.

6. Decide solutions and organize the implementation of the state budget as decided by the National Assembly; inspect the implementation of state budget; submit state budget implementation reports to the National Assembly and Standing Committee of the National Assembly, national target programs, projects of national importance whose investment guidelines are decided by the National Assembly.

7. Submit reports on finance - budget to the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly upon request.

8. Establish procedures for making estimates, collecting revenues, controlling and paying budget expenditures, and finalizing budget; advancing payment from the next year’s budget; using budget reserve; using financial reserve fund and other financial funds of the State as prescribed in this Law and other relevant regulations of law.

9. Decide important budget spending regimes which are within a wide sphere of influence in relation to the performance of national socio-economic tasks after consulting the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

10. Decide spending regimes, criteria and norms for nationwide application; for some budget spending regimes, standards and norms, prescribe the brackets thereof and assign them to the provincial People’s Council for its specific decision.

11. Establish budget allocation principles, criteria and norms and submit them to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for decision to form a basis for formulation of estimates and allocation of budget to ministries, ministerial agencies, governmental agencies, other central agencies, and localities.

12. Instruct and inspect People’s Councils in implementing documents of superior state agencies; inspect the legitimacy of resolutions of People’s Councils.

13. Formulate and submit to the National Assembly state budget final accounts and final accounts of programs and projects of national importance whose investment guidelines are decided by the National Assembly.

14. Promulgate a Regulation on considering and deciding estimate and allocating local government budget and approving local government budget final accounts.

15. Provide for the performance-based budget management.

Article 26. Tasks and powers of the Ministry of Finance

1. Prepare bills, ordinance projects, 05-year financial plans, 03-year finance-state budget plans and other finance - budget projects and submit them to the Government; promulgate legislative documents on finance - budget under its authority.

2. Establish principles, criteria, and norms for allocation of recurrent expenditures of state budget; state budget spending regimes, standards, finance - budget management mechanisms, state budget accounting regimes, payment and finalization regimes, state budget entries, finance-state budget reporting and disclosure regimes, and submit them to the Government for promulgation or promulgate them as decentralized by the Government for nationwide implementation.

3. Decide to promulgate budget spending regimes, standards and norms applicable to sectors and fields after reaching agreement with ministries in charge of these sectors and fields; in case of failure to reach such agreement, submit them to the Prime Minister for his consideration and opinions before making a decision.

4. Formulate and submit to the National Assembly state budget estimates, central government budget allocation plans, adjusted state budget estimates where necessary. Organize the implementation of the state budget; uniformly manage and direct the collection of taxes, fees, charges, loans, other budget revenues, and international grants; organize provision of funding for covering state budget expenditures according to assigned estimates. Consolidate and make state budget final accounts for submission to the Government.

5. Preside over developing and submitting to competent authorities for approval objectives and orientations for fundraising, use of raised funds and management of public debts in each 05-year period; medium-term debt management programs; systems of indicators for monitoring government debts, public debts and national foreign debts; the Government’s annual borrowing and repayment plans.

6. Inspect finance - budget regulations of ministries, ministerial agencies, provincial People’s Councils, provincial People’s Committees and Chairpersons of provincial People’s Committees; in case regulations of such documents contravene the Constitution, laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and documents of superior state agencies, reserve the right to:

a) Submit proposal for suspension or repeal of documents of ministries or ministerial agencies to Ministers or heads of ministerial agencies;

b) Submit proposal for suspension of resolutions of provincial People's Councils to the Prime Minister;

c) Submit proposal for repeal of regulations of provincial People’s Committees and Chairpersons of provincial People’s Committees as prescribed by law.

7. Conduct financial-budgetary inspections and examinations, impose penalties for or request competent authorities to impose penalties in accordance with law for violations of financial-budgetary management regimes committed by ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, localities, economic organizations, administrative divisions, public service providers and other entities which are obliged to make payments to the state budget or use state budget.

8. Manage state budget funds, state reserve funds and other funds of the State in accordance with law.

9. Assess the efficiency of state budget expenditures.

10. Disclose the state budget as prescribed in Article 15 of this Law.

Article 27. Tasks and powers of the Ministry of Planning and Investment

1. Establish principles, criteria and norms for allocation of development investment capital from the state budget and submit them to the Government; formulate plans for allocation of development investment expenditures of the central government budget.

2. Cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and related ministries and agencies in formulating 05-year financial plans, annual state budget estimates, and 03-year finance-state budget plans.

Article 28. Tasks and powers of the State Bank of Vietnam

1. Cooperate with the Ministry of Finance in formulating and implementing plans for taking loans to offset state budget deficit.

2. Provide advance for the state budget to deal with the temporary shortage of the state budget fund under decisions of the Prime Minister.

Article 29. Tasks and powers of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies and other central agencies

1. Make their own annual budget estimates and 03-year finance-state budget plans.

2. Cooperate with the Ministry of Finance, other Ministries and agencies concerned in consolidating annual state budget estimates, central government budget allocation plans, 05-year financial plans, 03-year finance-state budget plans, and annual budget final accounts of fields and sectors under their charge.

3. Inspect and supervise the budget implementation in the sectors and fields under their charge.

4. Report the budget implementation, results of and efficiency in the use of budget in the sectors and fields under their charge.

5. Promulgate techno-economic norms as the basis for performance-based budget management in the sectors and fields under their charge.

6. Cooperate with the Ministry of Finance in formulating budget spending regimes, standards and norms in the sectors and fields under their charge.

7. Manage, organize the implementation, finalize and disclose their assigned budgets; ensure the efficiency in using the state budget.

8. Ministers, heads of ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies and other central agencies shall exercise their assigned tasks and powers assigned to them in the field of finance - budget and take responsibility for violations under their management as per the law.

Article 30. Tasks and powers of People’s Councils at all levels

1. Rely on the budget revenue collection and spending duties assigned by superior authorities and on local practical conditions to decide:

a) Estimates of state budget revenues collected in their localities, including domestic revenue, revenue from crude oil, revenue from export and import, and receipt of grant aid, which must not be lower than the state budget revenue estimates assigned by superior agencies;

b) Local government budget revenue estimates, including revenues fully retained and partially retained in the local government budget, transfers from higher-level budgets;

c) Local government budget expenditure estimates, including expenditures of their own budgets and those of lower level budgets, categorized as development investment expenditure, recurrent expenditure, interest repayment expenditure, transfers to financial reserve funds, budget reserve. Development investment expenditures and recurrent expenditures include specific expenditures on education, training, vocational training, science and technology;

d) Total loans of local government budgets, including loans for offsetting local government budget deficit and loans for repayment of principal of local government budget.

2. Decide the allocation of their own budget estimates:

a) Total expenditure covered by their budget, including allocated and unallocated amounts; development investment expenditures and recurrent expenditures sorted by sectors; transfers to local financial reserve fund; budget reserves;

b) Development investment expenditure and recurrent expenditure estimates of each affiliated agency and unit by field;

c) Transfers to the budgets of each immediate superior locality, including budget-balancing transfers and targeted transfers.

2a. 5a. The People's Committee of the same level is assigned to arrange and allocate expenditure estimates in respect of unallocated amounts specified in point a clause 2 of this Article in a timely, efficient and effective manner that ensures compliance with regulations of law, and submit quarterly reports thereon to the Standing Body of the People's Council, and also to the People's Council of the same level at its nearest meeting.

3. Ratify local government budget final accounts.

4. Decide guidelines and measures for implementing local government budgets.

5. Decide to adjust local government budget estimates where necessary.

6. Supervise the implementation of budgets decided by People’s Councils.

7. Repeal legislative documents on finance - budget of People’s Committees and chairpersons of People’s Committees of the same level and immediate inferior People’s Councils, which contravene the Constitution, laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, and documents of superior state agencies.

8. Decide the list of programs and projects under medium-term investment plans using the state budget of the same level; decide local important investment programs and projects funded by the state budget.

9. In addition to the tasks and powers specified in clauses 1 through 8 of this Article, provincial People’s Councils have the following tasks and powers:

a) Decide 05-year financial plans containing overall and specific objectives; capacity for collection of state budget revenues in their localities; local government budget revenues and expenditures, local government budget deficit and local government budget borrowing limits; major solutions for plan implementation;

b) Decide local government budget deficit and sources of funding for offsetting annual local government budget deficit;

c) Decide the decentralization of powers over revenue sources and spending duties to each level of local government budget according to clause 3 Article 9 of this Law;

d) Decide the percentage (%) of sharing between various levels of government budgets with regard to the revenues to be retained by local government budgets as prescribed in clause 2 Article 37 of this Law and revenues to be shared among various levels of local government budgets;

dd) Decide to collect fees, charges, and people’s contributions as prescribed by law;

e) Decide principles, criteria and norms for allocation of local government budgets;

g) Decide specific budget spending regimes, standards and norms according to framework regulations of the Government;

h) Apart from budget spending regimes, standards and norms promulgated by the Government or the Minister of Finance, decide budget spending regimes for certain particular spending duties of their localities to perform socio-economic development tasks and ensure social order and safety in their localities in a manner that is within the balancing capacity of the local government budget.

The Government shall elaborate this point;

i) Make decision on aid granted.

The Government shall elaborate this point.

Article 31. Tasks and powers of People’s Councils at all levels

1. Make local government budget estimates and plans on allocation of their budget according to clauses 1 and 2 Article 30 of this Law; make adjusted local government budget estimates where necessary and submit them to the People’s Council at the same level for decision and reporting to immediate superior state administrative agencies and finance agencies.

2. Make local government budget final accounts and submit them to the People’s Council at the same level for approval and reporting to immediate superior state administrative agencies and finance agencies.

3. Examine resolutions on finance - budget of inferior People’s Councils.

4. According to resolutions of People’s Councils at the same level, decide to assign budget revenue collection and spending duties to each affiliated agency and unit; budget revenue collection and spending duties of, transfers to, lower-level budgets, and percentages (%) of revenue sharing among various levels of local government budgets.

5. Decide solutions and organize the implementation of local government budget estimates decided by People’s Councils; inspect and report the implementation of the local government budget.

6. Cooperate with superior state agencies in managing the state budget in their localities.

7. Report and disclose the state budget in accordance with law.

8. Perform performance-based budget management as per the Government’s regulations.

9. Apart from the tasks and powers specified in clauses 1 through 8 of this Article, provincial People’s Committees have the following tasks and powers:

a) Formulate and submit to People’s Councils of the same level the documents prescribed in clause 9 Article 30 of this Law;

b) Make 03-year finance - state budget plans as prescribed in Article 43 of this Law; `

c) Decide the use of financial reserve fund and other financial funds of the State in accordance with this Law and relevant regulations of law.

10. Direct local finance agencies to preside over and cooperate with relevant agencies in assisting People’s Committees in performing their duties as prescribed in clauses 1 through 9 of this Article.

11. Chairpersons of People’s Committees of various levels shall organize the performance of assigned tasks and exercise of assigned powers in the field of finance - budget and take responsibility for violations in accordance with law.

Article 32.Tasks and powers of budget estimate units

1. Make annual budget revenue and expenditure estimates; allocate budget estimates assigned to them by competent authorities to their affiliated units and adjust the budget estimate allocation ratio under their authority; formulate 03-year finance-state budget plans in the fields under their management according to Article 43 of this Law.

2. Organize the implementation of their assigned budget revenue and expenditure estimates; fully and promptly transfer amounts payable to the state budget in accordance with law; ensure that every payment is properly made according to applicable regimes and policies, to serve the predetermined purposes and to correct beneficiaries in a thrifty and effective manner.

3. Provide guidance on and inspect the collection of budget revenues and payment of budget expenditures by their affiliated units.

4. Comply with regulations of law on accounting and statistics; report, finalize and disclose information on their budgets in accordance with law; approve final accounts of budgets of inferior budget estimate units.

5. In addition to the tasks and powers prescribed in clauses 1 to 4 of this Article, public service providers are entitled to proactively use revenues from fee collection and other lawful sources to develop and improve quality and effectiveness of their operations in line with the Government’s regulations.

6. Public service providers and state agencies exercising autonomy and self-responsibility for their payrolls and funding shall promulgate internal spending regulations in conformity with their assigned budget estimates as per the law.

7. Heads of budget estimate units shall perform exercise their tasks and powers assigned to them in the field of finance - budget and assume responsibility for violations in the fields under their management in accordance with law.

Article 33. Tasks and powers of investors

1. Implement investment projects through all stages of the investment process: investment preparation, project preparation, project implementation, acceptance, transfer in accordance with law on management of the state budget, public investment, construction and other relevant laws.

2. Comply with regulations of law on contracts, accounting, statistics, reporting, finalization, disclosure and retention of project dossiers.

Article 34. Powers and obligations of agencies, organizations, units and individuals related to state budget

1. Sufficiently and punctually pay taxes, fees, charges, and other payables to state budget as prescribed by law.

2. In case aid, capital, or funding is provided by the State according to given budget estimates, such amounts must be used properly in terms of purposes, regimes, thriftiness, efficiency, and financial statements must be submitted to finance authorities.

3. Adhere to regulations of law on accounting, statistics, and disclosure of budget.

4. Be provided with information, participate in public supervision of finance - budget as prescribed by law.

Chapter III

REVENUE SOURCES AND SPENDING DUTIES OF VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT BUDGETS

Article 35. Sources of revenue of central government budget

1. The following revenues are wholly retained by central government budget:

a) Value-added tax on imports;

b) Export and import duties;

c) Excise tax on imports;

d) Environmental protection tax on imports;

dd) Severance tax, corporate income tax, profits distributed to the home country and other revenues from petroleum exploration and extraction;

e) Grant aid provided by the Government of other countries, international organizations, other overseas organizations and individuals for Vietnam’s Government;

g) All revenues from fees for services provided by a central state agency, if provided with a predetermined funding for covering its operating expenses, such fees may be deducted; fees for services provided by public service providers and state-owned enterprises may be partly or wholly retained, the remaining amount shall be transferred to the state budget as prescribed by regulations of law on fees, charges, and relevant regulations of law;

h) Fees collected by central state agencies, except for registration fees prescribed in point h clause 1 Article 37 of this Law;

i) Collected fines for administrative violations, other fines and confiscations effected by central state agencies in accordance with law;

k) Revenues from selling state-owned property, including collected levies on land associated with property attached to land under the management of central agencies, organizations and units;

l) Revenues from the handling of property under the State ownership by central agencies, organizations and units;

m) Proceeds from the recovery of central government budget capital invested in economic organizations; revenues from distributed dividends and profits of joint-stock companies, multi-member limited liability companies that have state capital and ownership of which is represented by a Ministry, ministerial agency, Governmental agency, or another central agency; revenues from post-tax profit that remains after making contributions to various funds of enterprises 100% of charter capital of which is held by the State and ownership of which is represented by a Ministry, ministerial agency, Governmental agency, or another central regulatory agency; positive difference between revenue and expenditure of the State Bank of Vietnam;

n) Revenues from central financial reserve fund;

o) Central government budget remainder revenues;

p) Revenues carried over from last year’s budget of central government budget;

q) Other revenues prescribed by law.

2. Revenues shared by a percentage (%) between central government budget and local government budgets:

a) Value-added tax, except for that mentioned in point a clause 1 of this Article;

b) Corporate income tax, except for that mentioned in point dd clause 1 of this Article;

c) Personal income tax;

d) Excise tax, except for that mentioned in point c clause 1 of this Article;

dd) Environment protection tax, except the case mentioned in point d clause 1 of this Article.

3. The Government shall elaborate this Article.

Article 36. Spending duties of the central government budget

1. Development investment expenditures:

a) Investment in programs, projects and tasks, and other objects of public investment of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, and state-owned enterprises as prescribed in law on public investment;

b) Investment in, and provision of financial support to, enterprises providing public products and services ordered by the State; economic organizations; financial institutions under management of central agencies; investment of state capital in enterprises in accordance with law;

c) Other development investment expenditures prescribed by law.

2. Expenditure on national reserve.

3. Powers over recurrent expenditures of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, and other central agencies are decentralized in the following fields:

a) National defense;

b) Security and social order and safety;

c) Education, training and vocational training;

d) Science and technology;

dd) Health, population, and family;

e) Culture and information;

g) Radio, television, press;

h) Physical training and sports;

i) Environmental protection;

k) Economic activities;

l) Activities of state management agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations; provision of support for activities of socio-politico-organizations, social organizations, and socio-professional organizations in accordance with law;

m) Expenditures on social security, including expenditures on support for implementation of social policies as prescribed by law;

n) Other expenditures prescribed by law.

4. Expenditure on payment of interests on the loans taken by the Government.

5. Expenditure on aid provision.

6. Expenditure on grant of loans prescribed by law.

7. Transfers to the central financial reserve fund.

8. Expenditures of central government budget carried over to the next year.

9. Budget-balancing transfers and targeted transfers to local government budgets.

Article 37. Sources of revenue of local government budgets

1. The following revenues are wholly retained by local government budgets:

a) Severance tax, except for that on petroleum exploration and extraction;

b) License tax;

c) Levies on agricultural land;

d) Levies on non-agricultural land;

dd) Land levies, except for land levies mentioned in point k clause 1 Article 35 of this Law;

e) Rent for lease of land and water surface;

g) Proceeds from the lease and sale of state-owned houses;

h) Registration fee;

i) Revenues from construction lottery;

m) Proceeds from the recovery of central government budget capital invested in economic organizations; revenues from distributed dividends and profits of joint-stock companies, multi-member limited liability companies that have state capital and ownership of which is represented by a provincial People’s Committee; revenues from post-tax profit that remains after making contributions to various funds of enterprises 100% of charter capital of which is held by the State and ownership of which is represented by a provincial People’s Committee;

l) Revenues from local financial reserve funds;

m) Revenues from selling state-owned property, including collected levies on land associated with property attached to land under the management of local agencies, organizations and units;

n) Grant aid provided by international organizations, other organizations, overseas individuals to local governments;

o) All revenues from fees for services provided by a local state agency, if provided with a predetermined funding for covering its operating expenses, such fees may be deducted; fees for services provided by public service providers and enterprises whose ownership is represented by a provincial People’s Committee may be partly or wholly retained, the remaining amount shall be transferred to the state budget as prescribed by regulations of law on fees, charges, and relevant regulations of law;

p) Fees collected by local state agencies;

q) Collected fines for administrative violations, other fines and confiscations effected by local state agencies in accordance with law;

r) Revenues from the handling of property under the State ownership by local agencies, organizations and units;

s) Revenues from public land funds and other yields of public property;

t) Contributions of agencies, organizations and individuals as prescribed by law;

u) Local government budget remainder revenues;

v) Other revenues prescribed by law.

2. Percentage (%) of sharing between the central government budget and local government budgets as specified in clause 2 Article 35 of this Law.

3. Budget-balancing transfers and targeted transfers from the central government budget.

4. Revenues carried over from last year’s budget of local government budgets.

Article 38. Spending duties of local government budgets

1. Development investment expenditures:

a) Investment in programs, projects and tasks, and other objects of public investment falling under jurisdiction of local government in accordance with regulations of law on public investment, and the spending duties specified in point d clause 9 Article 9 of this Law;

b) Investment in, and provision of financial support to, enterprises providing public products and services ordered by the State, local economic organizations, and financial institutions in accordance with law;

b1) Offsetting interest rate differences, management fees and grant of entrusted loans via policy banks for implementing socio-economic policies in localities;

c) Other expenditures prescribed by law.

2. Powers over recurrent expenditures of local agencies and units are decentralized in the fields of:

a) Education, training and vocational training;

b) Science and technology;

c) National defense, security and social order and safety, the part assigned to localities for management;

d) Health, population, and family;

dd) Culture and information;

e) Radio, television;

g) Physical training and sports;

h) Environmental protection;

i) Economic activities;

k) Activities of state management agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations; provision of support for activities of socio-politico-organizations, social organizations, and socio-professional organizations in accordance with law;

l) Expenditures on social security, including expenditures on support for implementation of social policies as prescribed by law;

m) Other expenditures as prescribed by law.

3. Expenditure on payment of interests on the loans taken by local governments.

4. Transfers to local financial reserve funds.

4a. Grant of aid.

5. Expenditures of local government budgets carried over to the next year.

6. Budget-balancing transfers and targeted transfers to lower level budgets.

7. Expenditures on support for performance of some tasks prescribed in points a, b and c clause 9 Article 9 of this Law.

Article 39. Principles of decentralizing powers over revenue sources and spending duties between various levels of local government budgets

1. On the basis of revenue sources and spending duties of local government budgets prescribed in Articles 37 and 38 of this Law, provincial People’s Councils shall decide to decentralize powers over specific revenue sources and spending duties between various levels of local government budgets according to the following principles:

a) It is required to suit the decentralization of powers over socio-economic management, national defense and security in each field and suit economic, geographical and population characteristics, and managerial capacity of each region and locality;

b) Budgets of communes and commune-level towns are entitled to a portion of revenues from levies on non-agricultural land; license tax paid by business individuals and households; levies on agriculture land paid by households; land and housing registration fees;

c) District- and commune-level budgets do not have scientific and technological research spending duties;

d) Upon decentralizing powers over spending duties to towns and provincial, there must be spending duties for investment in construction of public general education schools of all levels, public lighting, water supply and drainage, urban traffic, urban sanitation and other public welfare facilities.

2. According to the percentage (%) of revenue sharing assigned by the Government and the revenues wholly retained by local government budgets, provincial People’s Councils shall decide the percentage (%) of revenue sharing between various levels of government budgets.

Article 40. Determination of budget-balancing transfers, targeted transfers and percentage (%) of revenue sharing between various levels of government budgets

1. Local government budgets are entitled to use the revenues wholly retained and shared revenues with regard to shareable revenues, and budget-balancing transfers from higher level budgets to balance their revenues and expenditures to ensure the performance of the assigned socio-economic, national defense and security tasks.

2. The percentage (%) of revenue sharing and budget-balancing transfers shall be determined on the basis of:

a) Calculation of revenue sources and spending duties prescribed in Articles 35, 37 and 38 of this Law according to the budget collection regime, budget allocation principles, criteria and norms, and budget spending regimes, standards and norms based on the criteria: population, natural conditions and socio-economic conditions of each region; paying attention to remote and isolated areas, revolutionary base areas, areas inhabited by many ethnic minorities, disadvantaged areas and extremely disadvantaged areas; areas with large paddy acreage; protection forest and special-use forest areas; key economic areas;

b) The revenues retained by local government budgets mentioned in point dd and point i clause 1 Article 37 of this Law shall not be used for determination of the percentage (%) of revenue sharing between central government budget and local government budgets or determination of budget-balancing transfers from central government budget to local government budgets.

3. Targeted transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets shall be determined according to the budget allocation principles, criteria and norms, budget spending regimes, standards and norms; capacity of higher level budgets and budget-balancing capacity of each lower level locality, in order to support the lower level budget in the following cases:

a) Implementation of a new policy or regime promulgated by superior agencies which is yet to be included in the budget estimate of the beginning year of the budget stabilization period;

b) Implementation of national target programs and other programs and projects of superior agencies assigned to inferior agencies;

c) Provision of financial support for the remediation of consequences of widespread disasters, catastrophes and epidemics beyond the balancing capacity of the lower level budget;

d) Provision of support for execution of some major and particularly important programs and projects that have tremendous impacts on local socio-economic development. Specific support levels shall be determined for each program or project. The total annual financial support for development investment from the central government budget to local government budgets prescribed in this point must not exceed 30% of total expenditure on fundamental construction investment of the central government budget.

Chapter IV

MAKING OF STATE BUDGET ESTIMATES

Article 41. Bases for making annual state budget estimates

1. Tasks of socio-economic development, national defense and security assurance, foreign policy and gender equality.

2. Specific tasks of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, local agencies, organizations and units.

3. Regulations of law on taxation, fees, charges and state budget collection regimes; state budget allocation norms and state budget spending regimes, standards and norms.

4. Decentralization of powers over budget revenue sources and budget spending duties and percentage (%) of revenue sharing and budget-balancing transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets.

5. Legal documents of competent authorities and state agencies providing guidance on formulation of the planning for socio-economic development and state budget estimates for the next year.

6. 05-year financial plans, 03-year finance-state budget plans, state budget-funded medium-term investment plans.

7. Implementation of the state budget of the previous year.

8. Budget revenue and expenditure estimate examination figures notified to authorities of all levels, agencies, organizations and units.

Article 42. Requirements for making of annual state budget estimates

1. State budget estimates shall be sorted by revenue, expenditure and the structure of development investment expenditure, recurrent expenditure, national reserve expenditure, expenditures on debt repayment and aid provision, financial reserve fund transfer, budget reserve.

2. Budget estimates of budget estimate units of various levels must contain all revenues and expenditures according to the forms and time limits prescribe by competent state agencies. Where:

a) Budget revenue estimates are made on the basis of predicted macro-economic indicators and relevant indicators, regulations of law on taxation, fees, charges and state budget revenue collection regimes;

b) Development investment expenditure estimates are made on the basis of approved planning, plans, programs and projects; 05-year financial plans; state budget-funded medium-term investment plans, capacity for balancing resources in the estimating year, regulations of law on public investment and construction and other regulations of relevant laws;

c) Recurrent expenditure estimates are made on the basis of assigned tasks, tasks approved by competent authorities, spending regimes, standards and norms prescribed by competent agencies. The making of state budget estimates by state agencies exercising autonomy and self-responsibility for their payrolls and funding for administrative management; public service providers exercising autonomy and self-responsibility for performing their tasks and organizing their apparatus, payrolls and finance must comply with the Government’s regulations;

d) State budget expenditure estimates in the field of education, training and vocational training, science and technology must have the ratio maintained as prescribed by relevant laws;

dd) Expenditure estimates for execution of national target programs are made based on the list of national target programs and total funding for execution of national target programs in each period decided by the National Assembly, objectives, contents, tasks and details of constituent projects of each national target program;

e) Debt repayment expenditure estimates are made on the basis of the payment of debts due in the estimating year;

g) Estimates of loans for offsetting state budget deficit are made on the basis of the state budget balance, capacity of each borrowing source and solvency and debt safety limit under the National Assembly’s resolution.

Article 43. 03-year finance-state budget plans

1. The 03-year finance-state budget plan is a finance-state budget plan which is annually formulated for a period of 03 years on the basis of the 05-year financial plan, including the year of making the budget estimate and the next 02 years. This plan is formulated at the same time the annual state budget estimate is made in order to orient the making of the annual state budget estimate; order of priority for allocation of resources for each field, task, activity, regime and policy in the medium term.

2. The 03-year finance-state budget plans include the national 03-year finance-state budget plans and 03-year finance-state budget plans of provinces and central-affiliated cities. A 03-year finance-state budget plan must cover predicted macro-economic indicators, key budget policies; predicted revenues and expenditures and revenue and expenditure structure; predicted budget deficit; principles of balancing the state budget and order of priority for the allocation of budget resources, maximum expenditure on each field, expenditures on debt repayment and recurrent expenditures; predicted contingent liability debt and major solutions for implementation of the plan within 03 years.

3. Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, provincial agencies and unit shall formulate their 03-year state budget-finance plans which contain: their primary objectives, tasks, regimes and policies; predicted financial resources, including predicted revenues which are assigned to them for management, required state budget expenditures for implementation; principles and method of determining order of priority for the implementation of tasks, activities, policies, and intended allocation of funding within the maximum limit on expenditure imposed by competent authorities; primary solutions for balancing the demand for expenditure and maximum expenditure within 03 years.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall preside over and cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in consolidating the national 03-year finance-state budget plan and reporting it to the Government for submission to the National Assembly; each Department of Finance shall preside over and cooperate with the Department of Planning and Investment in consolidating 03-year finance-state budget plans of provinces and central-affiliated cities and reporting them to provincial People’s Committees for submission to People’s Councils of the same level for reference when discussing, considering and approving annual state budget estimates and annual state budget allocation plans.

5. The Government shall provide for the formulation of 03-year finance-state budget plans.

Article 44. Time for providing instructions on making, consolidating, deciding, and assigning state budget estimates

1. Before May 15, the Prime Minister shall promulgate regulations on formulating socio-economic development plans and state budget estimates of the next year.

2. Before September 20, the Government shall submit the documents and reports mentioned in clause 1 Article 47 of this Law to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for its opinions.

3. The Government’s reports shall be sent to National Assembly deputies at least 20 days before the opening of the year-end session of the National Assembly.

4. Before November 15, the National Assembly shall decide state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plan of the next year.

5. Before November 20, the Prime Minister shall assign the next year’s budget revenue and expenditure estimates to each of the Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, provinces and central-affiliated cities.

6. Before December 10, provincial People’s Councils shall decide local government budget estimates and allocation of provincial budget of the next year. Inferior People’s Councils shall decide their next year’s local government budget estimates and allocation of their next year’s budget within 10 days from the date on which superior People’s Councils decide budget estimates and budget allocation.

7. Within 05 working days from the day on which the People’s Council decides budget estimates, the People’s Committee of the same level shall assign the budget estimate of the next year to each of its affiliated agencies and units; and concurrently submit a report to the immediate superior People’s Committee and finance agency, the provincial People’s Committee shall report to the Ministry of Finance the budget estimates decided by the provincial People’s Council.

8. Before December 31, Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, and People’s Committees at all levels must finish assigning budget estimates to their affiliated agencies, units and inferior People’s Committees.

Article 45. Responsibilities of agencies, organizations and units for making annual budget estimates

1. Local collecting agencies at all levels shall make state budget revenue estimates and send them to superior collecting agencies and finance agencies at the same level. Central collecting authorities shall make estimates of state budget revenues of their assigned fields and send them to the Ministry of Finance for consolidation and making of state budget estimates.

2. Agencies, organizations, units and project owners shall make budget revenue and expenditure estimates within the bounds of their assigned tasks and report them to their superior managing agencies for consolidation and reporting to the finance agencies of the same level.

3. Local finance agencies at all levels shall examine budget estimates of agencies, organizations and units at the same level; preside over and cooperate with relevant agencies in consolidating and making local government budget estimates and their budget allocation plans in accordance with clauses 1 and 2 Article 30 of this Law, then submit a report thereon to the People’s Committees at the same level.

4. People’s Committees at all levels shall consolidate and make local government budget estimates and report them to Standing Bodies of People's Councils at the same level for their consideration and opinions. Provincial People’s Committees shall send budget estimates to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and relevant agencies according to regulations for consolidation and making of state budget estimates for submission to the Government; also to National Assembly deputies’ delegations for supervision.

5. Central and local line management agencies shall cooperate with finance agencies and planning and investment agencies at the same level in making state budget estimates according to their assigned sectors and fields.

6. The Ministry of Finance shall examine budget estimates of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central and local agencies; preside over and cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, relevant Ministries and agencies in consolidating and making state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plans and submit them to the Government in accordance with clause 1 Article 47 of this Law.

Article 46. Discussing and deciding state budget estimates and annual budget allocation plans

1. Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies, local agencies, organizations and units shall hold discussions with their affiliated agencies and units.

2. Finance agencies at all levels shall preside over holding:

a) Discussions about annual budget estimates with agencies and units at the same level;

b) Discussions about budget estimates in the first year of the budget stabilization period with immediate inferior People’s Committees for determination of the percentage of revenue sharing between higher level and lower level budgets, budget-balancing transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets as the basis for making next years’ budget estimates;

c) For next years in the budget stabilization period, finance agencies shall work with immediate inferior People’s Committees at the latter’s request.

3. During a discussion about a budget estimate or budget allocation plan, if there is any revenue or expenditure that is unlawful or unsuitable for the budget capacity and socio-economic development orientations, the finance agency shall request adjustment thereof. If there is any discrepancy in opinions between the finance agency and other agencies or units at the same level and inferior People’s Committee, the local finance agency shall report it to the People’s Committee at the same level for its decision; the Ministry of Finance shall report it to the Prime Minister for his decision.

4. Appraisal and submission of the state budget estimate and central government budget allocation plan to the National Assembly for its decision:

a) The Government shall discuss and offer opinions in its draft reports submitted by the Ministry of Finance before submission to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly;

b) The Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly shall preside over verifying the Government’s reports submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly;

c) According to verification opinions of the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee and opinions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government shall complete the reports and submit them to the National Assembly;

d) The National Assembly shall discuss and decide the next year’s state budget estimate and central government budget allocation plan. In the course of discussing and deciding the state budget estimate and central government budget allocation plan, if budget revenues and expenditures are adjusted, the National Assembly shall decide solutions for maintaining the budget balance.

5. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly shall prescribe procedures for verification of state budget estimates and central government budget allocation plans by National Assembly agencies.

6. Local government budget estimates and local government budget allocation plans shall be considered and decided in accordance with the Government’s regulations.

Article 47. Submitted documents about state budget estimates and budget allocation plans

1. Documents about state budget estimates and budget allocation plans submitted by the Government to the National Assembly include:

a) Assessment of implementation of current year’s state budget; bases for making of state budget estimates and allocation of the central government budget; basic contents and solutions for implementation of state budget estimates;

b) State budget revenue estimates enclosed with solutions for mobilization of revenue sources for the state budget;

c) State budget expenditure estimates, explicitly stating important objectives and programs of the national economy and the Party’s and the State’s major policies related to the state budget;

d) State budget deficit and offsetting sources; the ratio of the deficit to the gross domestic product;

dd) 05-year financial plan for the first year of the planning period;

e) 03-year finance-state budget plan;

g) Report on public debts in accordance with the Law on Public Debt Management, explicitly stating due debts, overdue debts, interests payable in the year, additional debts derived from loans for offsetting the state budget deficit, debt repayment capacity in the year and debts by the year end;

h) Report on implementation the financial plan, the next year’s financial plans of off-budget financial funds under the management of central agencies;

i) Specific policies and measures for finance and state budget stabilization;

k) List, progress and the planning year’s investment estimates of state budget-funded key national programs and projects decided by the National Assembly;

l) Expenditure estimate of each of the Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central regulatory agencies sorted by field; revenue collection and spending duties, deficit level, percentage (%) of revenue sharing and transfers from the central government budget to the budget of each province or central-affiliated city;

m) Other documents clearly explaining estimates of state budget revenues and expenditures and central government budget allocation plan; tax exemption or reduction in the state budget estimate report submitted to the National Assembly.

2. The Government shall prescribe documents submitted by People’s Committees to People’s Councils at the same level on local government budget estimates and local government budget allocation plans.

Article 48. Re-making of state budget estimates

1. In case the state budget estimate and central government budget allocation plan are yet to be decided by the National Assembly, the Government shall re-make the state budget estimate and the central government budget allocation plan for submission to the National Assembly at the time decided by the latter.

2. In case the local government budget estimate and the plan for allocation of the budget of its level are yet to be decided by the People’s Council, the People’s Committee shall re-make such estimate and plan for submission to the People’s Council at the time decided by the latter which, however, must not be later than the time limit prescribed by the Government.

Chapter V

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE BUDGET

Article 49. Allocating and assigning state budget estimates

1. After receiving budget estimates allocated by the Government or People’s Committees, central and local level-I budget estimate units shall allocate and assign budget estimates to their affiliated budget-using units, units in charge of managing infrastructure property as prescribed in law on management and use of public property, units in charge of operating and maintaining infrastructure property, units assigned to perform tasks according to the Government’s regulations and units of lower level budgets if authorized to perform tasks to be covered by their budgets, and submit reports thereon to finance agencies of the same level and to the State Treasury where transactions are conducted. Allocation and assignment of budget estimates must be made in a timely manner that meets the requirements laid down in Article 50 of this Law.

2. The finance agencies of the same level shall examine estimates assigned by level-I budget estimate units to budget-using units. If it is detected that the allocation is against the assigned budget estimate in terms of its total amount and details specific to each field and task; is against the prescribed policies and regimes, they shall request level-I budget estimate units to make an adjustment within 10 working days from the date of receiving the latter’s allocation report.

3. Apart from the agencies competent to assign budget estimates, no other organization or individual may change the assigned budget tasks.

Article 50. Requirements and time limits for allocation and assignment of state budget estimates

1. The allocation and assignment of budget estimates to budget-using units must ensure:

a) Conformity with the assigned budget estimates in terms of their total amount and details specific to each field and assigned revenue collection and spending duty;

b) Conformity with spending policies, regimes, standards and norms;

c) Allocation of sufficient capital and funding for recovery of amounts to cover expenditures included in the estimate when they become due in the year, and reciprocal capital for projects funded by official development assistance (ODA) of foreign donors under commitments;

d) For allocation of development investment capital, satisfaction of requirements prescribed by the laws on public investment and construction and other relevant laws;

dd) For allocation of targeted transfers from higher level budgets to lower level budgets, achievement of correct targets, serving of correct beneficiaries and proper implementation of commitments or regulations on allocation of local government budgets for those targets.

2. Time limits for allocating and assigning state budget estimates:

a) For budget estimates assigned under clauses 5 and 7 Article 44 of this Law, level-I budget estimate units must complete the budget allocation and assignment to their affiliated budget-using units before December 31 of the previous year in accordance with clause 8 Article 44 of this Law;

b) In case additional budget estimates are assigned, within 10 working days from the date of receiving the additional budget estimates, higher level budget estimate units and inferior People’s Committees must complete the allocation and assignment of these estimates as per regulations.

Article 51. Temporary allocation of state budget-derived funding

1. At the beginning of the budget year, before budget estimates and budget allocation plans are decided by the National Assembly or the People’s Council, finance agencies and State Treasuries at all levels may, according to their functions, temporarily allocate state budget-derived funding to perform spending duties which cannot be delayed until the budget estimates are decided by competent authorities:

a) Payment of salaries and salary-like amounts;

b) Provision of public services and performance of official duties;

c) Provision of budget-balancing transfers to lower level budgets;

d) Other necessary funding for the operation of the state apparatus, except for equipment procurement and repair;

dd) Provision of funding for transitional projects of national target programs and for projects of national importance; and for other important and urgent transitional investment projects to remedy consequences of disasters, catastrophes and epidemics.

2. The maximum monthly temporarily allocated funding for the tasks prescribed in points a, b, c and d clause 1 of this Article must not exceed the monthly average expenditure of the previous year.

3. Government shall report expenditures on programs and projects funded by ODA and concessional loans from donors which have not been estimated or exceed the assigned estimates to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for its opinions before enactment and to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting.

Article 52. Adjustment of state budget estimates

1. Overall adjustment of the state budget in case of any change thereto compared to the assigned estimate which requires overall adjustment:

a) The Government shall make an overall adjustment to the state budget estimate and submit it to the National Assembly for its decision;

b) According to the National Assembly’s resolution on overall adjustment of the state budget estimate and budget revenue collection and spending duties assigned by superior authorities, People’s Committees at all levels shall make overall adjustments to local government budget estimates and submit them to the People’s Councils at the same level for decision.

2. The Government shall submit the adjustments to budget revenue collection and spending duties of several Ministries, ministerial agencies, governmental agencies, other central agencies, provinces and central-affiliated cities to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for its decision and report such adjustments to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting in the following cases:

a) The revenue is expected to be lower than the estimated revenue decided by the People’s Council resulting in certain expenditures being reduced;

b) The adjustment is made in case of an imperative of national defense or security requirements or for objective reasons. 

3. The People’s Committee shall submit the adjustment to the local government budget estimate to the Standing Body of the People's Council at the same level and report it to the People’s Council at its nearest meeting in the following cases:

a) The revenue is expected to be lower than the estimated revenue decided by the People’s Council resulting in certain expenditures being reduced;

b) The Standing Committee of the National Assembly decides to adjust the budget estimates of some provinces and central-affiliated cities as prescribed in clause 2 of this Article;

c) There is a need to adjust the budget estimates of some budget estimate units or localities at lower level.

4. The Government shall request the provincial People’s Councils to adjust their budget estimates if the allocation of local government budgets fails to conform to the National Assembly’s resolution.

5. People’s Committees shall request inferior People’s Councils to adjust their budget estimates if the allocation of local government budgets fails to conform to the resolutions of superior People’s Councils.

Article 53. Adjustment of estimates assigned to budget-using units

1. A budget estimate assigned to an affiliated budget-using unit shall be adjusted in the following cases:

a) The budget estimate is adjusted as prescribed in Article 52 of this Law;

b) The finance agency requests level-I budget estimate unit to adjust the estimate as prescribed in clause 2 Article 49 of this Law;

c) The level-I budget estimate unit adjusts the estimates among its affiliated units within the total amount and details specific to each assigned expenditure.

2. The estimate adjustment must satisfy requirements for estimate allocation and assignment specified in clause 1 Article 50 of this Law.  After adjusting any estimate, level-I budget estimate units shall send the adjustment to the finance agency at the same level for examination and to the State Treasury where the transaction is made for implementation.

3. Estimates assigned to budget-using units must be completely adjusted before November 15 of the current year.

Article 54. Organizing state budget management

1. Agencies, organizations, units, and individuals have the responsibility to, within the bounds of their tasks and powers, work out necessary solutions for ensuring the fulfillment of the assigned budget revenue collection and spending duties, practice thrift and combat waste and corruption; strictly adhere to financial rules and maintain financial discipline.

2. All agencies, organizations, units and individuals must fulfill their budget payment obligation in accordance with law; use state budget-derived funding for their intended purposes, according to prescribed regimes and in an economical and efficient manner.

3. Finance agencies have the responsibility to provide sources of funding for timely payment of expenditures as estimated.

Article 55. Organizing collection of state budget revenues

1. Budget revenue-collecting agencies are finance agencies, tax agencies, customs agencies and other agencies assigned or authorized by competent state agencies to organize the collection of state budget revenues.

2. Only budget revenue-collecting agencies may organize the collection of budget revenues.

3. Budget revenue-collecting agencies have the following duties and powers:

a) Cooperate with other relevant state agencies in organizing the collection of revenues in a proper, adequate and timely manner as prescribed by law; comply with the direction and inspection by the Ministry of Finance, superior managing agencies, People’s Committees and supervision by People’s Councils; cooperate with the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and its member organizations in encouraging organizations and individuals to fulfill their budget payment obligation in accordance with this Law and relevant regulations of law;

b) Organize management and collection of taxes, fees, charges, and other amounts directly payable to the State Treasury. Make payments to the State Treasury in full and on schedule according to regulations of the Ministry of Finance in the event of authorized collection;

c) Expedite and inspect the sufficient and punctual payment of amounts payable to state budget by agencies, organizations, units and individuals paying;

d) Examine and control sources of budget revenues; examine and inspect the adherence to regulations on budget declaration, budget revenue collection and budget payment and impose penalties for violations in accordance with law.

4. State Treasuries may open accounts at the State Bank of Vietnam and commercial banks to collect state budget revenues; include revenues sufficiently and promptly in the budget and regulate and regulate the revenues among various levels of budgets as prescribed.

Article 56. Organizing state budget payment

1. Funding for performance of spending duties in the estimate must be provided on schedule within the assigned budget estimate.

2. Capital or funds may be advanced for investment projects and other urgent spending duties with a view to performance of jobs under signed contracts. The advanced capital depends on the contract value, must not exceed the assigned budget estimate, and must comply with relevant regulations of law.  Advanced capital and funding shall be recovered when the completed volume or duties are paid for.

3. Lower level budgets may receive advance from higher level budgets to perform spending duties according to the assigned budget estimates where necessary.

4. According to assigned budget estimates and requirements for duty performance:

a) Heads of budget-using units shall send expenditure decisions to State Treasuries for implementation;

b) Inferior finance agencies shall withdraw transfers from higher level budgets at State Treasuries.

5. State Treasuries shall inspect the legitimacy of documents as per the law and provide funding for covering state budget expenditures by way of making direct payment or advance payment as prescribed in clause 2 and clause 3 of this Article when all conditions in clause 2 Article 12 of this Law are satisfied.

6. Heads of State Treasuries shall reject payment for the expenditures that fail to fully meet the conditions prescribed in clause 2 Article 12 of this Law and assume responsibility for their decisions in accordance with law.

Article 57. Advancing next year's budget estimates

1. Central government budget, provincial- and district-level budgets may receive advance funding from next year’s budget estimates to execute projects of national importance, urgent projects of central and local governments under state budget-funded medium-term investment plan decided by competent authorities. The advanced funding must not exceed 20% of the estimated expenditure on fundamental construction of the year in which fundamental construction works are built under approved state budget-funded medium-term investment plans. When allocating the next year’s budget estimate, the advance funding must be recovered in full. Otherwise, next year’s budget estimate is not permitted to be advanced.

2. The Government shall elaborate on the principles, criteria and conditions for advancing next year's budget estimates.

Article 58. Handling of temporary shortage of the state budget fund

1. If the central government budget fund faces a temporary shortage, it may receive advance from the central financial reserve fund and other lawful financial sources to have the shortage handled and such advance shall be reimbursed in the budget year; if the financial reserve fund and other sources cannot cover such advance, the State Bank of Vietnam shall provide advance to central government budget under a decision of the Prime Minister. Advance from the State Bank of Vietnam shall be reimbursed within the budget year, except for special cases decided by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

2. If a provincial government budget fund faces a temporary shortage, it may receive advance from the local financial reserve fund, central financial reserve fund and other lawful financial sources to have the shortage handled and such advance shall be reimbursed in the budget year.

3. If a district- or communal-level budget faces a temporary shortage, it may receive advance from the local financial reserve fund and other lawful financial sources to have the shortage handled and such advance shall be reimbursed in the budget year.

Article 59. Handling of increases or decreases in revenues and expenditures compared to budget estimates during implementation of the state budget

1. In case the actual revenue is lower than that in the estimate decided by the National Assembly or a People’s Council, some expenditures shall be decreased as prescribed in point a clause 2 and point a clause 3 Article 52 of this Law.

2. The increase in revenues, except for that of a local government budget derived from new projects put into operation during the budget stabilization, must be paid to the higher level budget. The decrease in budget expenditures as compared to their estimates shall be used in the following order of priority:

a) Reduce deficit, increase debt repayment, including principal and interest;

b) Build up the financial reserve fund;

c) Supplement sources for implementation of wage policies;

d) Implement some social security policies;

dd) Increase expenditures on investment in some important projects;

e) Perform the tasks prescribed in clause 3 and clause 4 of this Article.

The Government shall make a plan for using the increase in revenues and the decrease in expenditures of the central government budget and report it to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for decision and to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting. Each People’s Committee shall make a plan for using the increase in revenues and the decrease in expenditures of the its budget and report it to the Standing Body of the People’s Council for decision and to the People’s Council at its nearest meeting. The increase in revenues of the local government budget derived from new sources of revenue during budget stabilization period must comply with point d clause 7 Article 9 of this Law.

3. At the end of the budget year, if the local government budget faces a deficit compared to the estimate for an objective reason and cannot be balanced after decreasing some expenditures as prescribed in clause 1 of this Article and using other local lawful financial resources, the higher level budget may receive support from the higher level budget within the latter’s capacity.

4. Bonus for revenues in excess of those in the estimate which are distributed among various levels of budgets:

a) If the revenues of the central government budget increases due to the increases in revenues distributed between central government budget and local government budgets as compared to the estimate, the central government budget shall set aside an amount not more than 30% of the increase in revenues as bonus for localities that have revenue increases; however, the bonus must not exceed the last year’s increase in revenues.

According to the level of bonus decided by Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the provincial People’s Committee shall request the People’s Council at the same level to decide to use the bonus to make investment in construction of infrastructure programs and projects, performance of important tasks, and grant of bonus to lower level budgets;

b) Provincial People’s Committees shall submit to the People’s Councils at the same level the regulations on grant of bonus for increase in revenues shared among various levels of local government budgets.

Article 60. Reporting state budget implementation

1. Tax agencies and customs agencies at various levels shall submit periodic reports to finance agencies at the same level and relevant agencies on collection of state budget revenues as prescribed by law.

2. State Treasuries shall submit periodic reports to finance agencies at the same level and relevant agencies on collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures as prescribed by law.

3. Level-I budget estimate units shall submit periodic reports to finance agencies at the same level and relevant agencies on collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures as prescribed by law.

4. Local finance agencies at all levels shall submit periodic reports to People’s Committees at the same level and relevant agencies on collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures; submit reports on use of targeted transfers from the higher level budget to superior finance agencies as prescribed by law.

5. Local People’s Committees at all levels shall submit to Standing Bodies of People’s Councils at the same level reports on the issues mentioned in clause 3 Article 52 and clause 2 Article 59 of this Law; to People’s Councils at the same level reports on implementation of local government budgets at their year-end meeting, and additional assessment reports at their mid-year meeting.

6. Inferior People’s Committees shall submit periodic reports on collection of local government budget revenues and payment of local government expenditures to superior finance agencies. Provincial People’s Committees shall submit periodic reports on collection of state budget revenues within their provinces and on collection of local government budget revenues and payment of local government expenditures to the Ministry of Finance.

7. The Ministry of Finance shall submit periodic reports to the Government and related agencies on collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures in accordance with law.

8. The Government shall submit reports the issues mentioned in clause 2 Article 52 and clause 2 Article 59 of this Law to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly; the Government shall submit to the National Assembly reports on collection of state budget revenues and payment of state budget expenditures at its year-end meeting and additional assessment reports on collection of budget revenues and payment of budget expenditures at its mid-year meeting.

Article 61. Budget management and use by budget-using units

1. Heads of budget-using units shall take responsibility for the management and use of their budgets according to the assigned estimates, assess the performance of tasks, and ensure efficiency, frugality and adherence to budget expenditure policies, regimes, standards and norms.

2. Persons in charge of finance and accounting of budget-using units have the responsibility to adhere to regimes for finance - budget management, state accounting and internal inspection, and to prevent, discover violations and request heads of units and finance agencies at the same level to take actions against violations.

Article 62. Management of the State Treasury fund

1. The State Treasury fund refers to all amounts of the State on the accounts of the State Treasury opened at the State Bank of Vietnam and commercial banks, and cash in State Treasury units. State funds are derived from budget funds of various levels and deposits of state financial funds and economic units and organizations at the State Treasury.

2. The State Treasury perform the centralized and uniform management of the State Treasury fund to adequately and promptly meet the payment needs of the state budget and units making transactions at the State Treasury; and ensure safety and efficiency of state funds.

3. The Government shall prescribe regimes for management of the State Treasury fund.

Chapter VI

ACCOUNTING, AUDIT AND FINALIZATION OF STATE BUDGET

Article 63. Accounting and finalization of state budget

1. Agencies, organizations, units and individuals related to state budget revenues and expenditures shall account, report, and finalize the state budget in accordance with the prescribed accounting regime and this Law.

2. Finance agencies are entitled to suspend budget expenditures of budget estimate agencies, organizations and units at the same level that fail to observe the reporting regimes for accounting, finalization and other financial statements, and shall take responsibility for their decisions.

3. State Treasuries shall account the state budget; aggregate state budget revenues and expenditures; submit reports to finance agencies at the same level and relevant agencies according to regulations.

Article 64. Year-end settlement of state budget revenues and expenditures

1. At the end of a budget year, agencies, organizations, units and individuals related to state budget revenues and expenditures shall close accounting books and make statements of state budget final accounts.

2. The deadline for adjusting state budget final accounts is January 31 of the next year.

3. Estimated payments, including transfers in the year which have not been made or made in full at the end of the budget year, including the time for adjustment of state budget final accounts prescribed in clause 2 of this Article, must be cancelled, except for certain payments carried over to the next year for implementation and recorded in the next year’s budget:

a) Expenditures on development investment carried over to the next year’s budget in accordance with the Law on Public Investment;

b) Expenditures on equipment procurement that have adequate documents and equipment procurement contracts signed before December 31 of the year of budget estimate implementation;

c) Sources for implementation of salary policies;

d) Revenues of which public service providers and state agencies are given autonomy;

dd) Estimates added by competent authorities after September 30 of the year of estimate implementation;

e) Funding for scientific research.

4. The revenue increases and expenditure decreases shall be used as prescribed in clause 2 Article 59 of this Law, such amounts may be carried over to next year's budget if permitted by a competent authority.

5. The Government shall elaborate on carrying over to the next year’s budget.

Article 65. Requirements for finalization of state budget

1. Data on state budget final accounts must be accurate, truthful, and adequate.

2. Final accounts of state budget revenues are the revenues which have been actually paid and accounted for as state budget revenues as per regulations. Revenues of the previous years’ budgets which are paid to the next year’s budget shall be accounted for as revenues of the current year’s budget. Final accounts of state budget expenditures are the expenditures which have been actually paid and accounted for as state budget expenditures as per regulations.

3. Figures in final accounts of budgets of budget-using units and project owners and of budgets of various levels shall be compared and confirmed by State Treasuries where transactions are made.

4. Contents of statements of state budget final accounts must be conformable with those of the assigned state budget estimates and state budget entries.

5. In the statements of final accounts of district- and commune-level budgets, budget expenditures must not be higher than budget revenues.

6. Statements of final accounts of budget-using units, superior budget estimate units and budgets of various levels shall be enclosed with explanations and assessments of results and efficiency of budget expenditures against results of task performance of the units and localities and assigned fields, programs and targets under their charge.

7. Statements of final accounts of off-budget financial funds shall be enclosed with explanations and assessments of results and efficiency of task performance of these funds.

8. Unlawfully collected state budget revenues shall be refunded to the payers; pending state budget revenues shall be fully collected; state budget-derived payments unlawfully made shall be recovered in full.

Article 66. Approval of state budget final accounts

1. Annual final accounts may be approved as follows:

a) Each revenue and expenditure arising in a unit shall be examined;

b) Revenues must comply with regulations of law on taxes, fees and charges, and other revenue regulations of the State;

c) The expenditures must satisfy the conditions in clause 2 Article 12 of this Law;

d) All revenues and expenditures must be accounted for in accordance with the state accounting regime, the state budget revenue entries and on schedule;

dd) Documents about revenues and expenditures must be legitimate. Figures in accounting books and statements of final accounts must match the documents and figures kept by the State Treasury.

2. Agencies examining annual final accounts:

a) Superior budget estimate units shall approve annual final accounts of their affiliated inferior budget estimate units according to regulations;

b) In case the level-I budget estimate unit is also a budget-using unit, the finance agency at the same level shall approve the state budget final accounts of the level-I budget estimate unit at the same level.

3. When approving final accounts, the approving agency is entitled to:

a) Request the State Audit Office of Vietnam or hire an independent audit organization in accordance with the audit law to audit statements of final accounts of large-scale target projects and programs to have more bases for the approval;

b) Request the unit to provide explanations or information and data necessary for the approval;

c) Request the unit to immediately pay amounts payable to the state budget according to regulations and remove payments which have been made against regulations or the approved estimates; take punitive actions or request a competent authority to take punitive actions against the violations committed by the head of the unit making payments against regulations, causing loss to the state budget;

d) Correct errors or request the inferior unit to re-make the statement of final accounts where necessary.

4. As the approval of annual final accounts is finished, superior budget estimate units shall issue notices of approval of final accounts to inferior budget estimate units; level-I budget estimate units shall send such notices to inferior budget estimate units and finance agencies at the same level for appraisal as prescribed.

Finance agencies shall issue notices of approval of final accounts of level-I budget estimate units which are also budget-using units.

5. The head of a unit approving final accounts shall assume responsibility for results of final account approval and incur penalties as prescribed by law in case he/she fails to detect violations or has detected violations but failed to impose penalties therefor.

Article 67. Appraisal of state budget final accounts

1. Agencies appraising state budget final accounts:

a) Finance agencies at all levels shall appraise annual final accounts of level-I budget estimate units funded by the budgets of their respective levels, except for the case prescribed in point b clause 2 Article 66 of this Law;

b) Finance agencies of provinces and districts shall appraise annual final accounts of lower level budgets;

c) The Ministry of Finance shall not appraise annual final accounts of the budgets of provinces and central-affiliated cities.

2. Finance agencies at all levels shall appraise annual final accounts of level-I budget estimate units funded by the budgets of their respective levels as follows:

a) Examine the adequacy and consistency of figures in final accounts as prescribed; ensure consistency between figures in final accounts of level-I budget estimate units and notices of approval of final accounts of their affiliated agencies and units and the State Treasury’s confirmations of these figures;

b) Consider and determine the accuracy and legitimacy of figures in final accounts of increases or decreases compared to the assigned estimates;

c) Comment on annual final accounts.

3. Finance agencies of provinces and districts shall appraise annual final accounts of lower level budgets as follows:

a) Examine the adequacy and consistency of figures in final accounts as prescribed;

b) Consider and determine the accuracy and legitimacy of figures in final accounts of increases or decreases compared to the assigned estimates;

c) Comment on annual final accounts.

4. When appraising final accounts, a finance agency is entitled to:

a) Request the level-I budget estimate unit and inferior finance agency to provide information and data necessary for the appraisal;

b) Request responsible agencies to remove and recover payments which have been made against regulations and immediately pay amounts payable to the state budget as prescribed;

c) Request the agency approving final accounts to adjust figures in final accounts of the budget estimate unit in case of detecting any error therein;

d) Request refund of payments unlawfully made to the budget or request a competent authority to request such refund.

5. When the appraisal of annual final accounts is finished, finance agencies shall issue appraisal notices together with their comments and recommendations to level-I budget estimate units or inferior People’s Committees for implementation.

If any error is detected, finance agencies shall request level-I budget estimate units to adjust figures in final accounts; for final accounts of lower level budgets, finance agencies shall request inferior People’s Committees to request their People’s Councils to adjust these figures.

In case of detecting any violation, finance agencies shall deal with such violation under their authority as prescribed by law or request a competent authority to do so.

6. If discovering errors during consolidation of final accounts of budgets of provinces and central-affiliated cities, the Ministry of Finance shall request provincial People’s Committees to request People’s Councils at the same province to adjust figures. In case of detecting any violation, the Ministry of Finance shall deal with such violation under its authority as prescribed by law or request a competent authority to do so.

Article 68. Making of state budget final accounts by budget estimate units and project owners

1. Each budget-using unit shall make final accounts of its state budget revenues and expenditures and send them to the immediate superior budget estimate agency.

2. The project owner of a fundamental construction investment program or project or a national target program or project of national importance shall:

a) At the end of the budget year, make a statement of final accounts of all used capital sources and state budget capital and report on the use of capital and the value of volume of completed works which have been paid in the year, and send them to the agency allocating capital construction investment capital, the superior agency of the project owner, and the finance agency at the same level;

b) When the fundamental construction program or project or national target program or project of national importance is completed, make statements of final accounts of all capital sources and state budget capital together with explanatory reports on the use of the capital, and send them to the agency allocating capital construction investment capital and the agency competent to approve finalization statements of fundamental construction works and the program or project as per regulations;

c) For a national target program or project of national importance whose investment guidelines are decided by the National Assembly, in addition to the regulations prescribed in points a and b of this clause, make a finalization statement and submit it to the Government for consideration and submission to the National Assembly.

3. According to the approved final account of a budget-using unit, the superior budget estimate unit shall make a statement of state budget final accounts under its management and send it to its immediate superior budget estimate unit; to the finance agency at the same level, for a level-I budget estimate unit.

Level-I budget estimate units shall impose deadline for submission of statements of final state budget accounts by their affiliated budget estimate units, ensuring that they send statements of state budget final accounts to the finance agencies at the same level according to the prescribed deadline.

Article 69. Time limits and procedures for making final accounts of local government budgets

1. Based on the report submitted by the State Treasury, results of approval and appraisal of state budget final accounts of level-I budget estimate units of its level and statements of final accounts of lower level budgets approved by the People’s Council, the local finance agency shall consolidate and make final accounts of the local government budget and submit them to the People’s Committee at the same level.

2. The People’s Committee shall send the statement of final accounts of the local government budget to the Board of the People’s Council at the same level for verification; and also to the immediate superior finance agency.

3. The People’s Committee shall report final accounts of the local government budget to the Standing Body of the People’s Council at the same level for its opinions before submitting them to the People’s Council.

4. The statement of state budget final accounts of the People’s Committee and verification report of the Board of the People’s Council shall be sent to deputies of the People’s Council at the same level at least 05 working days before the opening date of the next mid-year meeting of the People’s Council.

5. The communal People’s Council shall consider and approve the statement of final accounts of the budget of its level and submit it to the district-level People’s Committee within 05 working days from the date on which such statement is approved. The district-level People’s Committee shall consolidate and make a statement of final accounts of the district-level budget and submit it to the district-level People’s Council for approval and to the provincial People’s Committee within 05 working days from the date on which such statement is approved. The provincial People’s Committee shall consolidate and make a statement of final accounts of the local government budget and submit it to the provincial People’s Council for approval before December 31 of the next year.

The provincial People’s Council shall specify time limits for approval of final accounts of commune- and district-level budgets and for the People’s Committee to send the statement of budget final accounts to the agencies mentioned in clauses 2 and 3 of this Article.

6. In case final accounts of the local government budget of a level are yet to be approved by the People’s Council, the People’s Committee at the same level and the State Audit agency that audited the budget of that level must keep clarifying the contents requested by the People’s Council and submit them again at the time decided by the People’s Council, which, however, must be within 30 days from the deadline specified in clause 5 of this Article.

Article 70. Time limits and procedures for making state budget final accounts

1. Level-I budget estimate units of the central government budget shall make statements of final accounts of budget revenues and expenditures under their management and submit them to the Ministry of Finance and the State Audit Office of Vietnam before October 01 of the next year.

2. Provincial People’s Committees shall submit statements of final accounts of the local government budgets to the Ministry of Finance and the State Audit Office of Vietnam before October 01 of the next year.

3. Within .5 working days from the date on which provincial People’s Councils approve final accounts of the local government budgets, provincial People’s Committees shall submit final accounts of the local government budgets to the Ministry of Finance and the State Audit Office of Vietnam.

4. Based on reports made by the State Treasury, results of appraisal of statements of state budget final accounts of level-I budget estimate units of the central government budget and final accounts of the local government budgets approved by provincial People’s Councils, the Ministry of Finance shall consolidate and make a statement of state budget final accounts and submit it to the Government and the State Audit Office of Vietnam within 14 months after the end of the budget year.

5. The Government shall report state budget final accounts to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly within 16 months after the end of the budget year for its opinions before submission to the National Assembly.

6. The Government’s statement of final state budget accounts shall be sent to National Assembly deputies at least 20 days before the opening date of the mid-year meeting of the National Assembly.

7. The National Assembly shall consider and approve state budget final accounts within 18 months after the end of the budget year.

8. Procedures for verification of state budget final accounts by the National Assembly’s agencies for approval shall be provided for by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

9. In case state budget final accounts are not approved by the National Assembly, the Government shall, within the bounds of its tasks and powers, and the State Audit Office of Vietnam shall keep clarifying the contents requested by the National Assembly for submission to the National Assembly at the time decided by the National Assembly.

Article 71. Auditing statements of final accounts of the state budget and local government budgets

1. The State Audit Office of Vietnam shall audit statements of state budget final accounts before submitting it to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

2. The State Audit Office of Vietnam shall audit statements of final accounts of local government budgets before sending them to provincial People’s Councils for consideration and approval.

Article 72. Handling of state budget remainders

1. Central and provincial budget remainders shall be used to pay principals and interests of loans of the state budget. If the remainder still remains, 50% of it shall be transferred to the financial reserve fund at the same level and the other 50% shall be shall be carried forward to the next fiscal year; for budget revenues of the subsequent year; if the financial reserve fund has reached 25% of the annual budget expenditure estimate, the rest of the remainder shall be included in next year’s budget revenue.

2. District- and commune-level budget remainders shall be included in next year’s budget revenue.

Article 73. Handling of unlawful state budget revenues and expenditures after state budget final accounts are approved

In case any unlawful budget revenues or expenditures are found after final accounts of the state budget and budgets of local governments of various levels have been approved by competent authorities, clause 8 Article 65 of this Law shall apply and such revenues or expenditures shall be finalized in the budget of the year in which they are dealt with.

Chapter VII

IMPLEMENTATION CLAUSE

Article 74. Guidelines on implementation of some special regulations

1. Pursuant to provisions of this Law, the Government shall provide regulations on management and use of budget for some activities of the Communist Party of Vietnam, some activities in the fields of national defense, security and external affairs, and some specific finance - budget mechanisms and policies applicable to Ho Chi Minh City, some provinces and central-affiliated cities, and special economic - administrative divisions, report them to the Standing Committee of National Assembly for its opinions before implementation, and to the National Assembly at its nearest meeting.

2. Hanoi City shall implement specific finance - budget mechanisms and policies in accordance with the Law on the Capital.

Article 75. Transitional clauses

1. The Law on State Budget No. 01/2002/QH11 still applies to state budget final accounts of 2015 and 2016.

2. The 2011-2015 budget stabilization period shall be extended to the end of 2016. The next budget stabilization period will begin from 2017 to 2020. Budget estimates of 2016 of Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, other central agencies and localities, the following regulations shall be adhered to:

a) For recurrent expenditure estimates, apply norms for allocation of state budget current expenditures as per the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 59/2010/QD-TTg dated September 30, 2020;

b) For development investment expenditure estimates, apply the principles, criteria and norms for allocation of investment capital derived from the state budget in 2016-2020 period according to the Resolution of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. Development investment expenditure estimates of 2016 must be within the framework of the 2016-2020 medium-term investment plan and shall be arranged in a manner that is appropriate to the growth rate of the 2016 state budget expenditure compared to 2015.

Article 76. Effect

1. This Law comes into force from the budget year 2017.

2. The Law on State Budget No. 01/2002/QH11 shall cease to have effect from the effective date of this Law.

Article 77. Elaborating regulations

The Government shall elaborate on some Articles and clauses of this Law as assigned.

 

CERTIFIED BY CHAIRMAN Le Quang Tung