The Ministry of Finance has just published a summary, explanation, and acceptance of comments and social criticism from agencies, organizations, and individuals on the draft Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 55/2023/TT-BTC dated August 15, 2023 of the Minister of Finance regulating the management, use, and settlement of career funds from the state budget to implement the National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025 (amended and supplemented by Circular No. 75/2024/TT-BTC dated October 31, 2024).
In Clause 17 of the draft Circular amending and supplementing Point b, Clause 2, Article 40 of Circular 55/2023/TT-BTC, many ministries, branches and localities have given their opinions to adjust the level of support and scope of guidance.
The State Audit proposes to add appendices to specify the support level for each content, while establishing a flexible mechanism in deciding the support level for each household or group of households, based on the production project to ensure cost efficiency. The State Audit also proposed reviewing the feasibility and timing of implementing the one-time direct support regulation, because up to now, the draft is still in the process of collecting opinions from units.
The Ministry of National Defense proposes to revise the content of Clause 15, Article 1 of the draft to: b) For poor households on the ethnic list that still face many difficulties.
The Central Organizing Committee suggested adding the phrase "minority" to properly express the beneficiaries, and at the same time proposed to edit it as follows: "b) For poor ethnic minority households on the list of ethnic minorities facing many difficulties".
From a local perspective, the Department of Finance of Lai Chau province proposed to adjust the regulation to: b) For poor ethnic households on the list of ethnic groups facing many difficulties... The average support level is 13 million VND/household/year. The maximum support level is 65 million VND/household/phase".
The Thanh Hoa Provincial Department of Finance proposed that the Ministry of Finance consider raising the maximum support level to comply with local realities and the regulations in Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 and Decree No. 38/2023/ND-CP dated June 24, 2023 of the Government.
The Department of Finance of Quang Ngai province proposed to increase the maximum one-time direct support level for households or groups of households to 20 million VND/household, saying that this regulation will create better conditions for the implementation of production models suitable for each region.
In response to the above recommendations, the Ministry of Finance reported and explained that the support content in the draft Circular was developed in accordance with Point a, Clause 2, Part II of the Program issued with Decision 920/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister.
Regarding the basis for determining the maximum support level of 13.2 million VND/household/year, the Ministry of Finance cited the proposal of the Ethnic Committee in the Feasibility Study Report on adjusting the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, along with Document No. 2412/UBDT-VPCTMTQG dated December 24, 2024 and Report No. 356/BC-BDTTG dated April 15, 2025 sent to Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh.
According to statistics from the Ethnic Committee, there are currently about 280,900 ethnic households facing many difficulties. The total estimated support budget in Sub-project 1, Project 9 is VND 3,695.259 billion (career capital), equivalent to an average support level of VND 13.2 million/household/year.
From the summary opinions, the Ministry of Finance believes that the proposals on increasing the support level or expanding the scope of guidance are all beyond the framework of Decision 920/QD-TTg. Therefore, the draft Circular continues to maintain the maximum support level of 13.2 million VND/household/year, ensuring compliance with the total allocated resources and the implementation principles of the National Target Program for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas for the period 2021-2025.
