Circular No. 37/2008/TT-BTC guiding the policy to support kerosene for lighting for households of ethnic minority groups, poor households, and policy-targeted households in areas without grid electricity.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for the policy to support kerosene for lighting for households of ethnic minority groups, policy-targeted households, and poor households in areas without grid electricity

for ethnic minority households, policy-targeted households, and poor households in areas

that have not yet been connected to the power grid

Pursuant to the State Budget Law No. 01/2002/QH11 dated December 16, 2002 and related guiding documents;

Pursuant to Decree No. 77/2003/NĐ-CP dated July 1, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Implementing Clause 1 of Article 1 of Decision No. 289/QĐ-TTg dated March 18, 2008 of the Prime Minister on issuing certain policies to support ethnic minorities, policy-targeted households, poor households, near-poor households, and fishermen;

The Ministry of Finance hereby provides guidelines for the policy to support kerosene for lighting for households of ethnic minority groups, policy-targeted households, and poor households in areas without grid electricity as follows:

This technical regulation sets out technical requirements, testing methods, sampling procedures; management requirements; responsibilities of organizations and individuals producing, trading, and importing cigarettes.

1. Recipients of Support: These are households defined below residing in areas without grid electricity:

- Households of ethnic minority groups (including those with a spouse who is an ethnic minority);

- Poor households determined by the People's Committee of the province (hereinafter referred to as the provincial People's Committee) based on the poverty standard set forth in Decision No. 170/2005/QĐ-TTg dated July 8, 2005 of the Prime Minister regarding the establishment of the poverty standard applicable from 2006 to 2010;

- Policy-targeted households are families of persons who have rendered meritorious service to the revolution according to the Law on Persons with Meritorious Service No. 26/2005/PL-UBTVQH11 dated June 29, 2005 and the Law No. 35/2007/PL-UBTVQ11 dated June 21, 2007 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly amending and supplementing certain articles of the Law on Preferential Treatment for Persons with Meritorious Service.

2. Level of Support: The state budget will provide financial support equivalent to VND 50,000 per household per year based on the retail price at the time of support.

Ethnic minority households currently receiving state budget support equivalent to VND 50,000 per year for kerosene under Decision No. 168/2001/QĐ-TTg dated October 30, 2001 of the Prime Minister with a kerosene selling price of VND 10,200 per liter (retail price as of January 1, 2008) shall be additionally supported the difference between the retail price of kerosene at the time of implementation of the policy under Decision No. 289/QĐ-TTg dated March 18, 2008 of the Prime Minister (hereinafter collectively referred to as Decision No. 289/QĐ-TTg) and the previously supported kerosene selling price.

3. The People's Committee of communes, wards, towns (hereinafter collectively referred to as the commune-level People's Committee) shall be responsible for publicly disclosing the policy, level of support, and list of households receiving support in accordance with Circular No. 54/2006/TT-BTC dated June 19, 2006 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of the regulation on publicizing direct budget support to individuals and residents.

Annually, the commune-level People's Committee shall be responsible for reviewing the list of households benefiting from the policy to update it accordingly; simultaneously removing households that have access to grid electricity from the list of beneficiaries.

4. Source of Funding for Implementation of the Policy: The central budget will provide funding to provinces and centrally-administered cities that receive supplementary balance transfers from the central budget. Provinces and centrally-administered cities with a share of revenue allocated to the central budget, self-balancing, and arranging funds from the local budget to implement the policy.

5. Unspent funds from the source of funding for implementing the policy (including both the central budget support funds and the local budget allocation funds) at the end of the year may be carried over to the next year for continued use for this purpose and shall not be used for other purposes.

II. ESTABLISHING BUDGET ESTIMATES

1. Along with the annual budget preparation process, the commune-level People's Committee shall be responsible for compiling a list of households benefiting from the policy and preparing a budget estimate for implementing the policy in their respective areas to submit to the district finance and planning department for consolidation into the district budget estimate.

2. Based on the list of recipients and budget estimates submitted by the communes, the district finance and planning department shall coordinate with relevant units (Office of the People's Council and People's Committee, Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs) to review the eligibility of policy beneficiaries in each commune and develop a budget estimate for implementing the policy across the entire district, which will be consolidated into the annual district budget expenditure report to be reported to the district-level People's Committee and sent to the provincial Department of Finance for consolidation into the provincial budget estimate.

3. The provincial Department of Finance shall coordinate with relevant departments and agencies to prepare a budget estimate for implementing the policy across the entire province, which will be consolidated into the annual provincial budget expenditure report to be reported to the provincial People's Committee and submitted to the Ministry of Finance along with the annual provincial budget expenditure report in accordance with the guidance provided by the State Budget Law.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall take the lead in coordinating with relevant ministries and sectors to consolidate the budget estimates for implementing the policy in various localities and report to the Government for submission to the National Assembly for consideration together with the annual state budget estimate.

5. For the year 2008: The provincial People's Committee shall be responsible for preparing the budget estimate for implementation in 2008, to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities, and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs for consolidation and presentation to the Prime Minister for decision on the level of support for each locality in accordance with Point 4 of Part I of this Circular.

III. MANAGEMENT, DISTRIBUTION, PAYMENT, AND SETTLEMENT

1. Based on the budget support estimate assigned by the Prime Minister and the local budget funds that must be guaranteed (if any), the provincial Department of Finance shall take the lead and coordinate with relevant units (Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, Ethnic Minority Board, etc.) to develop a plan for allocating funds to implement the policy for each district, to be reported to the provincial People's Committee for submission to the provincial People's Council for approval. Based on the budget estimate for kerosene support approved by the provincial People's Council, the provincial People's Committee shall allocate the budget estimate for kerosene support to each district together with the annual budget estimate.

2. On the basis of the budget for oil support expenses assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Finance and Planning at the district level shall coordinate with relevant agencies (the People's Council Office and People's Committee Office, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) to develop a plan allocating funds to each commune, and report to the District People's Council for decision. Based on the budget approved by the District People's Council, the District People's Committee assigns the budget for each commune to implement.

3. On the basis of the budget for oil support expenses assigned by the District People's Committee and the number of households eligible for the policy within the locality, the Commune People's Committee withdraws the budget from the State Treasury where transactions are conducted to directly pay to eligible households. The dossier submitted by the Commune People's Committee to the State Treasury includes: the approved budget, Payment Order (advance payment). When disbursing funds, the Commune People's Committee is responsible for preparing payment vouchers and lists of eligible households (with signatures of each household) as proof of payment to the State Treasury. The Commune People's Committee must complete payments to eligible households within no more than two working days from the date of withdrawing the budget from the State Treasury.

4. Reporting, accounting, and settlement procedures:

Quarterly and annually, the Provincial People's Committee shall compile the implementation status of oil support for lighting for households, and report to the Ministry of Finance (detailing the number of beneficiaries, the amount of funds allocated to beneficiaries) to aggregate and report to the Prime Minister.

The funding for oil support for lighting for beneficiaries as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 1 of Decision No. 289/QĐ-TTg shall be recorded under Chapter 4.160, Type 10, Item 123 Sub-item 99, and consolidated into the local government budget settlement according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

This Circular takes effect fifteen days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette. Any difficulties encountered during implementation should be reported to the Ministry of Finance for review and appropriate amendments./.