The disbursement rate in September rose 8 percent compared to August, Long told a meeting on October 14 in Hanoi between the ministry and localities on the disbursement of public investment sourced from the Government’s foreign borrowings in the first nine months of 2020.
The amount of capital allocated to specific projects and updated on the Treasury And Budget Management Information System (Tabmis) by localities had reached 97 percent of the estimate as of the end of September, up 6.6 percent compared to August.
The amount localities requested to return to the central budget represented 11.73 percent of the estimate, he said.
According to Long, disbursement in September improved significantly against August but is still short of the annual estimate.
He noted that when excluding the amount of capital that localities asked to return, the disbursement of capital sourced from the central budget for public investment purposes has reached only 32.43 percent of the annual target with just four months of the year remaining.
Meanwhile, the amount paid in advance without the submission of invoices has fallen over the months, while actual disbursement has been on the rise, and the average time the funds were spent in advance was shortened from seven months to three or four months. This contributed to reducing the amount of capital spent on paying interest, while speeding up the disbursement process, he said.
A representative from HCM City said that, as of September 30, the city had disbursed about 1.5 trillion VND, or 29.5 percent of the target. It also disbursed 4.8 trillion VND in re-borrowed capital, or 46 percent of the target. Combined, the city reached 40.86 percent of the target. For the year as a whole, it is likely to disburse 8 trillion VND, the representative said.
The impact of COVID-19 was also cited by the representative as being behind the slow disbursement, along with the slow adjustment of investment policies and site clearance.
The Ministry of Finance has urged localities to promptly submit receipts for spent amounts, while working closely with project management boards to update disbursement figures.
Source: VNA