The National Assembly's Standing Committee members yesterday discussed the Law on Fees and Charges in the morning session, during which the NA Chairman Hung asked lawmakers to put a stop to overlapping and unnecessary fees.
Hung expressed his dissatisfaction at the lack of a detailed category of fees, for which the National Assembly was responsible for compiling.
"The National Assembly will not pass the law if it is incomplete. As National Assembly Chairman, I will not give the green light for this law," he said frankly.
Another definitive request from the NA leader was to redefine the fees collected to cover public services and fees that are compulsory for State management activities. He asked the standing committee to work on clear fees and service charges.
"We have put tuition fees and hospital fees on the service price mechanism, but there are still many other fees that should not be on that list," he said, taking highway fees as an example of something people should pay if they used the highways.
"Genuine fees need to be regulated in the law, and the National Assembly will manage that list. It is forbidden to create new fees to impose on the people, and service prices must be listed in the Law on Prices," he said.
Earlier, the committee discussed amendments and supplements to the Law on Accounting and the Law on Charges and Fees.
NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung stressed that the bill on accounting would help to stop corruption and embezzlement, saying that the amendments to the bill should be open, transparent, accurate and suitable to international practices.
"When foreign investors show interest in Viet Nam, they can find out about the country's financial environment through the Law on Accounting. This law needs to be comprehensive. If not, we should not bother discussing it any further," Hung said.
The NA leader expressed his disappointment at the amendments put forward at the latest meeting, saying that the draft law failed to meet expectations. He asked for more work to be done on the draft, especially on regulations regarding internal auditing.
Chairman of the National Assembly Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc, said that the hiring of accountants and a chief accountant was very important, and urged for stricter regulations on the recruitment process.
"Officers working for State agencies should not be recruited for these positions. Only retired civil servants should be hired," he said.
Chairman of the NA Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said that the regulations for accounting business licences should meet international standards and ethics, while adapting to conditions in Viet Nam as outlined in the Law on Enterprise.
Other deputies said that the content about internal auditing and the requirements for a chief accountant and accountants' association should be clearer.
At the 40th session of the 13th National Assembly Standing Committee that opened yesterday, legislators are scheduled to debate 17 bills and one draft ordinance.
Among the draft documents are the revised Civil Code, revised Civil Procedure Code, revised Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on Information Security, the Law on Referendum and Law on Belief and Religion.
Budget allocation
In the afternoon, the committee discussed the allocation of the State budget for investment and development for the period 2016-2020.
Deputies agreed that a revised set of standards and principles was needed to regulate the budget allocations for the development of localities across the country.
The previous Government Decision 60/2010/QD-TTg, after five years in effect, has showed numerous shortcomings and limitations. Various projects funded by the budget were said to be unco-ordinated or ineffective, contributing to a growing gap between rich and poor localities.
The application of the Law on the State Budget and the Law on Public Investment, has enabled the Standing Committee to build a set of standards and principles to replace the previous. These will be submitted to the Prime Minister for review and directions.
The committee also discussed the country's draft Law on Statistic. Deputies voiced their concerns over how the law concentrated on regulations for State data gathering, leaving non-State data gathering overshadowed.
Head of NA's Judicial Committee Phan Trung Ly said there was a need to draw a line between what types of data should be gathered by the State and what could be opened to partnership with the private sector.
