State budget disbursement lags behind
The Finance Ministry has reported that the disbursement of State budget in cities and provinces nationwide during the first quarter of this year has been slow.
Deputy Finance Minister, Tran Van Hieu said that 63 cities and provinces had disbursed more than VND7.55 trillion (US$346.3 million ) from State budget, accounting for 20.7% of the total funding the Government will to allocate them this year.
Four localities have spent half of their allocated funding, including northern Ha Nam Province, Ninh Binh Province, Hanoi and southern Dong Thap Province.
HCM City and the two southern provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau reported no disbursement of State budget money.
Southern Dong Nai Province spent 0.5% of allocated State budget, southern An Giang Province 4.3%.
The disbursement of Government bonds and counterpart capitals in ODA projects was also slow, the report said.
This year, Government plans to allocate over VND 30.7 trillion (US$1.4 billion) by selling Government bonds to development transport, healthcare, irrigation and other national projects.
Sixty-two localities reportedly disbursed more than VND4.44 trillion (US$203.7 million) or 14.4% of allocated funds from Government bonds.
The disbursement rate is less than one per cent in nine localities, about zero per cent in five localities and from 1.3% to 9.1% in 21 localities.
Deputy Minister Hieu said that localities must keep a watchful eye on the speed of projects using State budget and Government bonds.
They were asked to speed up disbursement for the projects.
They were also asked to identify bottlenecks, including land clearance and disbursement.