VietNamNet Bridge – The city would not be able to begin work on 352 state-funded projects next year due to financial shortfalls, according to the HCMC Department of Finance.

Illustrative image -- File photo

The city government has asked the People’s Council of the city to approve these projects at the council’s 18th ongoing session but the council said it would consider them at its next sitting to give the city government more time to review them.

The delay would affect the implementation of the projects, the department’s director Dao Thi Huong Lan told a discussion session Tuesday afternoon.

According to Lan, if the council did not give the nod at its ongoing session, the departments of finance and planning-investment could not arrange funding for those projects.

“Data of the Department of Planning and Investment shows the number of projects without capital arrangements in the second half of the year is 352,” Lan said.

Investment disbursements for state-financed projects in HCMC have almost reached half of the full year’s target in the year to date. If capital is not allocated for new projects, investment disbursements and implementation of public works like schools and hospitals would be affected, Lan said.

Commenting on this matter, deputy Le Truong Hai Hieu of the HCMC People’s Council said those 352 projects are crucial to local citizens.

“These new hospitals, schools, roads, clean water supply and environmental projects are the works people are waiting for. I request the council to approve the projects so that they can be carried out soon for the benefit of the local populace,” Hieu said at the discussion session.

As for collecting the road maintenance fee from motorcycle owners, the council’s chairwoman Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam said on July 29 that the Government’s Decree 18 on road maintenance fee collection is still valid though the Central Road Maintenance Fund has proposed the Prime Minister suspend the fee collection from next January and assign relevant agencies to revise the decree.

HCMC would do as required by the decree, Tam stressed.

The number of motorcycles registered in HCMC was more than 6.85 million as of the end of last year. Therefore, the city would collect around VND307 billion per year from vehicle owners, with VND35.9 billion allocated to fee collection units and VND271.1 billion to road maintenance.