Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc

According to Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, in addition to the VND26 trillion support package, the ministry has allocated VND5.156 trillion to the fight against the pandemic and built a vaccine fund with VND8.3 trillion so far.

The ministry has disbursed VND8.187 trillion for Ministry of Health to buy 91 million vaccine doses and it is following procedures to disburse VND12.28 trillion.

“Ministry of Finance (MOF) has been assigned to design a new support package related to taxes and fees, estimated at VND24 trillion. MOF has also proposed the delay of the implementation of Circular 40 on taxation until January 1, 2022,” Phoc said.

The ministry has also proposed cutting 10 percent of regular expenses and 50 percent of expenses on meetings and business trips abroad.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said the pandemic developments are very complicated and enterprises are in big difficulties.

MOF and State Bank of Vietnam are also considering the next support packages.

Regarding solutions for the time to come, Dung said a PM’s special taskforce with Minister of Planning and Investment as a permanent member will be set up. The taskforce is in charge of detecting as well as solving procedural problems at all projects of all economic sectors to create the most favorable business environment.

The Government wants to apply policies that allow enterprises to delay the tax and fee payment at a maximum level; create a ‘green passage’ mechanism to pave the way for goods to circulate smoothly; and speed up vaccinations for workers in IZs, aviation, tourism and accommodation sectors.

The Government has assigned Ministry of Planning and Development to draw up a plan on economic recovery. Proposals will be made in Q4.

Regarding the supply of essential goods, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said the PM emphasized that there must not be disruption in production and supply chain of essential goods for people, especially people in pandemic hit areas.

A forefront taskforce has been set up which is in charge of ensuring the supply of goods for HCMC and southern provinces, connecting producers, distributors and consumers and distributing the localities in need.

The lack of goods occurred on the first days of social distancing in HCMC, but the situation has improved and the prices are stable.

Localities have been asked to review the situation and help enterprises distribute essential goods so they can store goods in the localities for 10-15 days. 

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