The government has four more days to improve a draft law on support for small and medium enterprises (SME) before the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee decides to add it to the list of laws for the legislature to consider at its next session slated to open on October 21.
Concluding a discussion on the draft law during the meeting of the committee on October 6, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan told minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung that the committee would wait four more days for the draft law to be improved.
Ngan stressed if the October 10 deadline is missed, the committee would have to remove the draft law from the agenda of the NA’s upcoming session.
NA vice Chair Phung Quoc Hien said, “If the law is well prepared and appraised by the Ministry of Justice and the NA Economic Committee, it should be sent to NA deputies by October 10.”
The chances that this much-anticipated draft law could go before the NA later this month are slim as the government has a lot of contents to review while it has just four days.
Hien said many points in the draft law should be fine-tuned and that if the law is drafted without prudence, it might be abused, leading to huge budget revenue losses.
Ngan complained she received the draft the night before, so she had little time reading it. “We must ensure the quality of the draft.”
At the morning session on October 6, members of the NA Standing Committee criticised the draft as well.
Phung Quoc Hien said the draft did not win a consensus among ministries. For example, the Ministry of Justice as the appraising agency pinpointed many problems and shortcomings.
The Ministry of Finance rejected almost all the provisions on tax incentives in the draft. Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam wanted to abolish the regulations on assistance for SMEs by using monetary policy tools.
Hien said the Ministry of Industry and Trade assumed that if the supporting measures specified in the draft were adopted, they would go against the trade pacts Vietnam has signed.
Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the prime minister had made a decision on the draft law and the draft law presented at the committee’s session on October 6 reflected the final view of the government.
However, Dung admitted the drafting process was actually slow.
“It’s true that the preparation is slow because the way of law making is not really good. We established a drafting committee and convened several meetings with relevant agencies. However, they sent in the wrong persons and constantly changed their representatives. They came to check if there would be any disadvantages for them, instead of making contributions,” Dung said.
Deputy minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said comments on the draft law would be weighed. The draft law will be adjusted as the longer it is drafted, the more disadvantages the business community might face.
Dong expected that the draft law would be passed at the next session of the legislature.
Representatives of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and small and medium-sized enterprises asked the NA Standing Committee to include the draft law in the agenda of the next session.
Source: http://english.thesaigontimes.vn
Key words: Govt, urged to improve, draft SME law.
