The government should stop all funding of state-owned corporations so it can concentrate on balancing its budget, National Assembly representatives said Thursday.

Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a member of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said the government should spend the VND10.6 trillion (US$629 million) earmarked for state-owned corporations elsewhere.

“The companies will have to find the money by themselves,” Thuyet said.

State firms were Thursday taken to task by Thuyet for receiving funding and loans from the government while continuing to operate inefficiently.

National Assembly representatives said the government was still not managing state spending well, exacerbating inflation.

Thuyet said this year Vietnam had earned VND35 trillion ($2.07 billion) from oil exports while subsidizing fuel by VND32 trillion ($1.9 billion) and giving VND9 trillion ($534 million) to Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Tax evasion, fraud and delays in state-funded projects were also hurting the national budget, representatives said.

They said these issues had been raised in previous National Assembly sessions but nothing much had been done.

Thuyet said 27 provinces had misused their education and training budgets this year while 24 cities and provinces, including five big cities, had misspent money allocated for scientific research.

Do Manh Hung, a member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs, called for more transparency in budget management. He criticized the questionable incomes and spending in the state-funded electricity and fuel sectors.

“Officials in the fuel sector cannot now use the excuse that they imported fuel at a high price so cannot cut retail prices because world fuel prices have fallen,” Hung said.

Many representatives also didn’t agree with the revised forecast for 2008 revenue, 23.5 percent higher than last year’s forecast for 2008 government revenue.

They said the increase in the forecast was based on higher projected incomes from oil and land, which can fluctuate wildly.

Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh said the government had based next year’s budget revenue forecast on an average crude oil price of $90 per barrel.

However, Ninh said, the price was now down to $60 per barrel. He said the ministry would ask the National Assembly to approve a new forecast with an average crude oil price of $70 per barrel.

Using this oil price, state revenue in 2009 would decrease by VND36 trillion ($2.1 billion), Ninh said.

To balance next year’s budget, the minister recommended the government increase import tariffs on fuels and cut back on other planned spending.

Reported by Xuan Toan