Strengthening inspections over social insurance funds is essential given the hike in their management expenses in 2016 and 2017, heard the ongoing 24th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee in Hanoi on May 15.

An overview of the function

Lawmakers held that the management cost for social insurance funds was higher than that proposed by the Government in Report No.480/BC-CP dated October 9, 2015 for the 2016-2018 period.

Specifically, the management cost rose 6.2 percent to 612 billion VND or 26.7 million USD in 2016 and 13 percent to 1.38 trillion VND or 60.3 million USD in 2017.

The figure is estimated to increase 21 percent to over 2.4 trillion VND (104.8 million USD) in 2018.

Legislators asked the Government to pay more attention to ensuring the effective use of management expenses and encouraging more people to join social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance annually.

They agreed with the Government’s proposal of keeping the social insurance and unemployment insurance management spending rates at 2.15 percent in 2019, 2.0 percent in 2020, and 1.85 percent in 2021.

Deputies recommended reducing expenditure in case of failure to meet the estimates.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong urged relevant insurance agencies to increase communication campaigns on the implementation of social, unemployment and health insurance policies in addition to improving the management of insurance funds.

During the function, lawmakers reviewed the implementation of Resolution No.1083/2015/UBTVQH13 issued by the National Assembly Standing Committee in 2015 on the management cost of social and unemployment insurance in 2016-2018 and the transfer of State budget to social insurance funds.-VNA