Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has emphasised the restructuringof state budget and public debt as a key and long-term task of the financialsector.

Addressing a teleconference to review financial and budget work in 2018 andput forward tasks for 2019 on January 9, the Prime Minister asked the sector towork to increase budget collection and reduce regular spending.

Besides, the sector needs to restructure and expand collection sources while promotingthe application of electronic invoices, he said.

He also asked for more facilitating mechanisms to support small and mediumsized enterprises and uplifting household businesses to registered enterprises.

At the event, PM Phuc praised the financial sector’s increase in budgetcollection in 2018, and its outstanding results like close coordination with relevantministries and local agencies in implementing tasks on macro-economicstability, growth model promotion and management of essential goods prices.

In 2018, the financial sector collected over 1,400 trillion VND (60.2 billionUSD) towards the State budget, or 7.8 percent higher than projected.

Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung attributed the result to the ministry’s effortsto actively implement the budget collection task right from the beginning of2018, and coordinate closely with other ministries, sectors, and localauthorities to intensify collection management.

According to the minister, the structure of budget spending was shifted to theright track, and the proportion of spending for development investmentsurpassed 27 percent, and regular spending was below 62 percent of the totalexpenditure.

The state budget overspending was estimatedat below 3.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and publicdebts kept under 61 percent of the GDP.

In 2019, the sector will continue administrating fiscal policy closely in linewith monetary policy and other macro policies, working to boost production andbusiness development, and implementing budget restructuring functions.

It will intensify the fight against transfer pricing, trade frauds, and taxevasion; step up taxation inspections; and solve tax debts so as to reduce therate of such debts to below 5 percent of the total State budget collection.Attention will also be paid to speeding up administrative reform, and cuttingdown unnecessary administrative procedures and business conditions, theminister said. –VNA