LookAtVietnam – Whether state-owned enterprises’ debts should be subject to the law on public debt management and who should manage public debt topped the agenda yesterday at a meeting of the Ethnic Council and the Committees of the National Assembly.

The draft law also states that signing and approving contracts for loan borrowing at the government and state levels must be conducted in line with the law on signing, joining and implementing international treaties. (Photo: Thanh Son)

Some assembly deputies suggested state-owned enterprise debts should be included in the law’s scope of regulation as the stated-owned enterprise debt was also a kind of public debt.

If enterprise debts were not included in the law, there would be a loophole in managing state-owned enterprise debt, they said.

However, according to deputy chairman of the NA Committee for Finance and Budget Trinh Huy Quach, state-owned enterprises had rights to borrow and repay debts, thus they must take responsibility for their debt.

He said the State was only responsible for the enterprise loans guaranteed by the Government and this was already regulated in the draft law.

Agreeing with Quach’s opinion, some deputies said it was necessary to have a regulation to avoid the situation in which the State had to deal with debts that the enterprises were unable to pay off.

Under current regulations, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the State Bank of Viet Nam are permitted to function as public debt managers.

The draft law inherits the regulation.

Disagreeing with the draft law, deputy chairman of the NA Ethnic Council Ma Dien Cu said the law should clearly regulate an agency which managed the debt. The agency should be the Ministry of Finance because this responsibility was compatible with the ministry’s functions and tasks, he said.

Some other deputies agreed with Cu, saying that too many agencies taking part in public debt management would lead to difficulties in placing the blame whenever a problem arised.

The draft law also states that signing and approving contracts for loan borrowing at the government and state levels must be conducted in line with the law on signing, joining and implementing international treaties. Signing and approving contracts by administrative levels lower than the ministerial level must be in line with the Government’s current regulation.

The chairman of the assembly’s Law Committee said the regulation was not clear and he questioned why administrative levels lower than ministerial levels were allowed to raise loans for the State.

In the meeting, deputies agreed with the draft law’s regulation which allowed localities to seek lending sources on their own initiative.

The draft law will be submitted to the National Assembly for approval in its 5th session.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News