Ministry of Information and Communications requests Ministry of Finance to remove difficulties for press agencies

On November 24, the Ministry of Information and Communications sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Finance requesting adjustments to a number of regulations on the financial autonomy mechanism of public service units, the ordering mechanism, and pricing of public service services using the State budget to remove difficulties for press agencies.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposed that the Ministry of Finance consider five groups of issues: First, amend and supplement Decree 60 regulating the financial autonomy mechanism of public service units; Second, a group of opinions on the mechanism for assigning tasks, ordering or bidding for the provision of public service products and services using the state budget from regular expenditure sources; Third, a group of opinions related to the law on prices; Fourth, a group of opinions on tax policy; Fifth, opinions on the arrangement of operating funds, purchasing of means of operation for press agencies and instructions on the expenditure regime for press agencies.

Supplementing regulations on financial autonomy mechanism of public service units

Regarding the first group of opinions, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposed to amend and supplement the regulations on the implementation of the roadmap for calculating prices for public services using the State budget. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, Decree 60 has inconsistent or non-specific regulations on the implementation of the roadmap for calculating full prices for public services using the State budget.

Specifically, Point a, Clause 2, Article 5 stipulates that by the end of 2021, the roadmap for calculating public service prices will be basically completed (calculating full salary costs, direct costs, management costs and depreciation of fixed assets, and other costs according to regulations of the law on prices).

However, Point b, Clause 2, Article 9 of the Decree stipulates that Group 2 public service units (with self-financing for regular expenditures) provide public services through auctions at prices that do not include depreciation costs. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, this provision is difficult to apply in practice when making estimates for contractor selection plans...

In addition, Clause 3, Article 9 stipulates that Group 3 public service units (self-guaranteeing a part of their regular expenditure budget) are ordered or bid by the State to provide public service services without fully calculating the costs, but it does not stipulate which costs are not included in the price to have a basis for implementation, especially when implemented by bidding method.

Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposed that the Ministry of Finance study and have unified regulations on the roadmap for calculating the full price of public products and services. In particular, it is proposed to calculate the depreciation cost of fixed assets when ordering and bidding for the provision of press and media services to support press and publishing agencies to proactively reinvest in assets and means of professional and technical operations. In addition, it is proposed to clarify whether Group 4 units (with career revenue of less than 10%) can order or bid for the provision of public services for unified implementation.

Along with that, the Ministry of Information and Communications also proposed to supplement regulations on clearly classifying financial resources of autonomous units and adjusting regulations on financial resource management for salary reform implementation. The Ministry also proposed to supplement Decree 60/2021/ND-CP or guiding documents on principles of allocation and cost accounting for public service units and press agencies with many activities using the state budget, many business and service activities for unified application; supplement detailed instructions on project development and implementation organization in joint venture and association activities for public service units to implement (including press agencies).

Supplementing regulations on product acceptance responsibility

Regarding the second group of opinions, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposed that the Ministry of Finance review and amend the qualitative calculation of salary costs in the price of ordering public career services using the State budget.

According to current regulations in Decree 60 and Decree 32, prices and unit prices of public products and services are determined based on economic and technical norms and cost norms issued by competent authorities. In particular, salary costs in prices and unit prices of public products and services are calculated based on basic salary levels, salary coefficients of salary scales, ranks, positions, allowances, etc. issued by ministries, central agencies, and provincial People's Committees according to their authority.

In fact, public service units have a level of autonomy in investment and regular expenditures (Group 1), and service units are self-sufficient in regular expenditures (Group 2) if calculating salary costs in service prices according to the above regulations is not suitable to the reality of the unit.

The Ministry of Information and Communications proposed that the Ministry of Finance study and amend Decree No. 60 to allow the determination of salary costs in the order price for Group 1 and Group 2 units.

Specifically, for units that have been issued economic and technical norms by competent authorities, the unit salary price according to the actual 3 consecutive years of the unit shall be applied when making a service price plan.

For units that have not been issued economic and technical norms by competent authorities, service unit prices are calculated based on average actual salary costs of the past 3 consecutive years.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the above amendment also ensures consistency in calculating salary costs in unit prices and prices of public service between units that have economic and technical norms and units that do not have technical norms as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree 60, in accordance with the implementation of the salary mechanism like enterprises for public service units of Group 1 and Group 2.

In addition, the Ministry of Information and Communications also requested the Ministry of Finance to supplement regulations on the responsibility for accepting public products and services using the State budget ordered by competent agencies; request consideration of instructions on ordering conditions; amend and supplement the procedures for ordering public services and on the method of managing specialized economic and technical norms.

Arrange funding for the governing agency to order press

Regarding the group of opinions related to the law on prices, the Ministry of Information and Communications has proposed that the Ministry of Finance study and amend and supplement the decree detailing the implementation of the law on prices, which does not stipulate that the ministry in charge of managing the industry or field is responsible for appraising the price plan for public services using the central budget in the field of information and communications...

It is recommended that the Ministry of Finance study and have a suitable price management mechanism to facilitate press agencies in receiving orders for information and propaganda from agencies and units other than the managing agency.

Regarding tax policy, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications, currently, print press agencies have been given preferential corporate income tax by the state with a tax rate of 10%. However, many press agencies currently have two or more types of press (radio, television, print, electronic). Meanwhile, press activities all serve political tasks, providing essential information.

Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposes that the state unify the application of preferential corporate income tax policies for all types of press, creating favorable conditions for press and facilitating accounting and tax management.

Finally, the Ministry of Information and Communications also requested the Ministry of Finance to pay attention to allocating funds to press management agencies to assign tasks and order press agencies to provide information and propaganda to serve political tasks, communicate policies, and provide essential information; arrange funds to purchase machinery and equipment to serve professional work, and improve the operational capacity of press agencies according to current regulations.