"Taxes* are what we pay for a civilized society." This implies that as
citizens we have an obligation to finance those activities in which we as a
society believe our government should invest. With that responsibility
comes the need to know and monitor how the government is spending our
hard earned Dong. The Vietnamese Government has made it easier for
citizens to do that, by making the State Budget available on the Ministry of
Finance Website.
From that website, it is easy to get information on where tax revenue is
spent. For example, in 2000 (the latest year for which actual expenditure
data is available), 57% of State Budget expenditures were on social and
economic services. Of the social and economic services expenditures, 21%
were for education and training and 17.4% went to finance pensions and
social relief. In the budget plan for 2002, spending on social and economic
services totaled 53% of die budget, with education spending taking up 25%
of that total and pension and social relief spending 17.4%.
There is also a breakdown of expenditures by Ministries and Central
Agencies of the government. For example, according to the information on
the web site, the Ministry of Transport received 4.3% of total state budget
expenditures in 2000. Of that amount, 82% was spent on capital
expenditures, 15% on social and economic services, and.5% on "national
program." The social and economic expenditures category is broken down
into subcategories. This reveals that 87% of expenditures on social and
economic services in the Ministry of Transport were on "economic
services." (Unfortunately, there is not a detailed explanation of the
budgetary categories.)
We all have the responsibility to pay taxes to finance our "civilized
society," but we must also hold our government officials responsible for
how that money is spent. The Ministry of Finance web site is one step
forward in achieving that goal.
