A reader introduced that the Deputy Director of the Thai Binh Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center (TP&T) sent the Ministry of Finance a question related to the policy for coaches and athletes after the merger of provinces.
Readers said that after Hung Yen and Thai Binh provinces merged, the two sports centers of the two provinces were also merged. The problem arises when there is a large gap in previous treatment regimes. Specifically:
At Thai Binh Center (old): Complying with the central regulations in Circular 86/2020/TT-BTC, athletes of the provincial team receive a nutritional allowance of 240,000 VND/day and are paid according to Decree 152/2018/ND-CP.
At Hung Yen Center (old): Coaches and athletes only receive nutrition according to the local level (highest is 175,000 VND/day), and are not entitled to salaries and support according to Decree 152.
Therefore, readers have questioned how from July 1, 2025, the new Hung Yen Provincial Sports and Physical Training Center will have to implement the nutrition regime, salary and support money for coaches and athletes to ensure unity and fairness.
To answer this question, the Ministry of Finance has issued a document responding to and analyzing in detail the relevant legal regulations, which can be divided into two main arguments:
Firstly, the Ministry affirmed the general regime framework of the country. The Ministry of Finance cited Circular 86/2020/TT-BTC and Decree 152/2018/ND-CP as the highest legal basis, specifically regulating nutrition regimes and salaries for high-performance sports coaches and athletes. Accordingly, the nutrition expenditure for the provincial team is 240,000 VND/day, the provincial youth team is 200,000 VND/day; at the same time, athletes also receive salaries or support from the budget. The application of these documents by the Thai Binh Center (old) is completely in accordance with general regulations.
Second, the Ministry clarifies the autonomy and responsibility of local budgets. In parallel with the general framework, the Ministry of Finance also pointed out legal provisions that allow localities to be flexible. Specifically:
The State Budget Law 2015 and the new law 2025) allow the Provincial People's Councils to "Decide on budget expenditure regimes for a number of specific expenditure tasks in the locality" to suit the actual situation and the ability to balance the budget of that province.
Circular 86 also opens up space for localities in Clause 2, Article 6, allowing the Provincial People's Council, based on budget capacity, to decide on specific nutritional regimes for other coaches and athletes in the locality.
This is the legal basis for allowing the old Hung Yen Center to issue a separate spending level, lower than the central budget, based on the provincial budget conditions at that time.
From the above detailed analysis, it can be seen that the Ministry of Finance's answer not to issue an administrative order is to apply it at a high or low level. Instead, the Ministry has pointed out that there are two legal corridors in parallel: one is the national standard framework and the other is the autonomy of localities.
Therefore, the responsibility for solving this "question" is now transferred to the Hung Yen provincial government (new). The Provincial People's Council will have to issue a new resolution, deciding on a unified spending level for the Provincial Employment and Investment Center, so that it is both approaching national standards to encourage talent and ensuring compliance with the balancing capacity of the local budget.
