Representative of MoF, National Assembly (Committee for Financial and Budgetary Affairs) and the Provincial Departments (Natural Resource, Tax, Custom and Finance) participated in the Workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Michael Krakowski, Chief Technical Advisor of the Macroeconomic Reforms /Green Growth Programme said on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für international Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) that the Law on Environmental Protection is being implemented in the sixth year. Since the implementation certain results have been achieved , such as institutionalizing the policies of the Party and the State; encouraging economic development to reduce environmental pollution; contributing to increased state budget revenues; raising awareness of environmental protection of the whole society and people.

Emphasizing this view, Dr. Michael Krakowski said that who uses energy affecting the environment must pay taxes and the environment is better protected through new tax policies and environmental protection tax (EPT) plays an outstanding role, especially when the Government of Vietnam decides for sustainably growth path. Increasing taxes will help to reduce resource use, and users will have to pay a higher price through taxes on environmental damage.

“We collect EPT not only for the purposes of environmental protection, but also for two purposes: financing the environmental activities and creating more space for the State to finance other related activities. I think that in Vietnam there has been a specific definition of what is the expenditure for environmental activities and for us, all expenditures for the activities such as the construction of subways, sky trains, etc. are also expenditures for environmental protection purposes. Currently, the expenditures for environmental purposes of the Vietnamese Government is higher than the revenues from environmental protection taxes” said Dr. Krakowski in his comment to the green fiscal policy in Vietnam.

Concerning to the situation in Vietnam, Mr. Pham Dinh Thi, Director General of the Tax Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, gave information on the revenue and expenditure: the total collection amount of environmental protection tax for the period 2012-2016 is approximately 105,985 billion VND with a yearly average 21.197 billion and 1,48% to 4,27% of total state budget revenue and 0,34% 0,98% of GDP. Of which is 11,160 billion VND in 201; 11,512 billion VND in 2013; 11,970 billion VND in 2014; 27,020 billion VND in 2015; and about 44,323 billion VND in 2016 and the total expenditure of central budget in this period was 131.857 billion VND, yearly average 131,875 billion VND (excluding expenditures for economic activities, development investment at local level and international loans and aids which are not included in the state budget plan). The expenditure is higher than the revenue from EPT.

After the consultation, the draft law will be finalized by the Ministry of Finance and submitted to the Government for submission to the National Assembly at the meeting in October 2017.