Chương 1 Luật ngân sách Nhà nước 1996: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- The State Budget comprises all revenues and expenditures of the State in the draft that has already been decided by the competent State Agencies and implemented within one year in order to ensure the implementation of the functions and responsibilities of the State.

Article 2.-

1. The State Budget revenues include: revenues from taxes, fees and charges; revenues from economic activities of the State; contributions by organizations and individuals; aid; other revenues as stipulated by law; and borrowings by the State to make up for the overspending that are included in the balance of the State Budget.

2. The State Budget expenditures include: spendings on socio-economic development, on ensuring national defense, security, operations of the State apparatus; spending on the payment of State debts; on aid and other spendings as stipulated by law.

Article 3.- The State Budget shall be put under unified management on the principle of democratic centralism, transparency, assignment of responsibilities in association with assignment of powers, division of management between branches and levels.

The National Assembly shall decide the draft State Budget and the allocations of the State Budget; ratify the State Budget accounts.

Article 4.- The State Budget shall comprise the central budget and the budgets of the local administration at various levels (local budgets). The relations between the budget of various levels shall be established on the following principles:

1. The central budget and the budget of each level of local administration shall be determined according to the concrete sources of revenue and concrete spending tasks;

2. Additional allocation from the higher-level budget to the lower-level budget shall be made to ensure equality, balanced development among the regions and localities. This additional allocation shall be the revenue of the lower-level budget;

3. In case the higher-level State management agency authorizes the lower-level State management agency to carry out an expenditure that comes under the former�s responsibility, funds must be transferred from the higher-level budget to the lower-level budget for performing such task;

4. Except for the supplementary allocations to the revenue source and the authorized spending as stipulated in Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article, the budget of one level shall not be used to pay for the spending that belongs to the task of another level.

Article 5.-

1. The State Budget revenue shall be collected in accordance with provisions of this Law and other provisions of law.

2. State Budget expenditure shall be made only under the following conditions:

a) It has been included in the approved draft budget, except for cases stipulated in Articles 56 and 62 of this Law;

b) In conformity with the regulations, criteria and norms set by the competent State agency;

c) It has been approved by the heads of the budget-using units and others who are authorized to approve the spending.

In addition to the conditions specified in Points a, b and c of Clause 2 of this Article, if the expenditure is made for a work that requires bidding, bidding must be organized in accordance with prescriptions of the Government.

3. No branch, level or unit is allowed to institute any revenue or expenditure contrary to the provisions of law.

4. The financial agencies at various levels shall have to ensure the timely allocation of fund for expenditures; are entitled to refuse to pay for any spendings that fail to meet the conditions stipulated in Clause 2 of this Article and take responsibility for their decisions.

Article 6.- All State Budget revenues and expenditures must be fully accounted for in the State Budget.

Article 7.-

1. The State Budget Fund shall comprise all amounts of money of the State, including borrowed money which have been entered into the accounts of the State Budget of all levels.

2. The State Budget Fund shall be kept at the State Treasury.

Article 8.-

1. The State Budget shall be balanced in accordance with the principle that the total revenue from taxes, fees and charges must be bigger than the total regular spending and help to accumulate more and more for spending on development investment; in case of over-spending, the over-spent amount must be smaller than the amount spent on development investment and eventually to achieve balance between revenue and expenditure of the budget.

2. The borrowings to make up for the State Budget deficit must abide by the following principle: they must not be used for consumption; but only for development purposes; there must be a plan to recover the borrowed capital and ensure budget balance in order to pay the debt when it is due.

3. The local budgets shall be balanced in accordance with the principle that the total expenditure shall not exceed the total revenue; in case a province or city directly under the Central Government (hereafter referred to as province) needs an investment in infrastructure construction which comes under the scope of the provincial budget but which is beyond its ability to balance, such a province shall be allowed to mobilize domestic investment capital as provided for by the Prime Minister; but it must balance its own budget in order to be able to pay all debts when they are due.

Article 9.-

1. The draft expenditures of the central budget and of the local budget at various levels shall be entitled to include 3% to 5% of the total estimated spending to meet the requirements of unexpected spendings arising during the budget year.

2. The Government and the provincial People’s Committees shall be entitled to establish the financial reserve fund from sources such as revenue increases, budget remainder, and to include it in the annual budget expenditure estimate. The financial reserve fund shall be used to meet the requirements of spendings when the revenues have not been collected in time, but such spendings must be immediately reimbursed within the budget year, except for special cases stipulated by the Prime Minister.

The maximum of the financial reserve fund at each level shall be stipulated by the Government.

Article 10.- The issuance and implementation of new legal documents that increase budgetary spending or decrease budgetary revenue during the year must be assured by financial sources.

Article 11.- The State Budget shall ensure enough funds for the activities of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the socio-political organizations. The funds for the activities of social organizations and socio-professional organizations shall be implemented in accordance with the principle of self-procurement, the State Budget shall render support only in a number of specific cases provided for by the Government.

Article 12.- All properties to be invested, purchased with the State Budget sources and other properties of the State must be strictly managed in conformity with the prescribed regimes.

Article 13.-

1. The State Budget revenue and expenditure shall be accounted for in the Vietnam Dong (VND).

2. The accounting and account statement of the State Budget shall be uniformly carried out in accordance with the accountancy regime of the State and the List of the State Budget.

3. All forms for State Budget revenues and expenditures shall be issued and managed by the Ministry of Finance.

Article 14.- The budget year begins on the 1st of January and terminates on the 31st of December on the calendar year.