A teller at the Phu Luong State Treasury (Thai Nguyen) is using the electronic bilateral payment application. Photo: Phu Luong State Treasury

Increase value and promote cashless payments

According to the State Treasury, the accumulated state budget revenue by the end of August 2024 reached more than VND 1.35 million billion, nearly 80% of the estimate. The State Treasury has closely coordinated with the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs, directing local State Treasuries to quickly, fully and promptly collect revenues into the state budget.

In particular, the State Treasury continues to implement stable and continuously expanding electronic bilateral payments. As of July 2024, the State Treasury system has implemented electronic bilateral payments with 18 commercial banking systems with more than 830 payment accounts and nearly 2,590 collection accounts, corresponding to a total of nearly 700 State Treasury units at all levels.

The State Treasury development strategy to 2030 requires the formation of an electronic treasury, a "3 no" treasury (no cash, no paper documents, no customer transactions).

The strategy also requires to diversify electronic payment methods in state budget collection. Grasping this trend, commercial banks have changed and transformed their models to cooperate with the State Treasury in payment.

Recently, from April 2024, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has implemented state budget collection through electronic bilateral payment channel with the State Treasury.

According to Eximbank, customers can pay domestic taxes, import and export taxes and other types of receipts at Eximbank transaction counters nationwide or via the websites of the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs and will be quickly confirmed by the agencies that they have completed their obligations to pay the state budget because the data is transmitted directly by the bank to the State Treasury and the tax authorities.

Previously in 2023, Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) also implemented state budget collection through electronic bilateral payment channel with the State Treasury nationwide.

OCB emphasized that the implementation will ensure proper business processes, safety and security to increase business value and contribute to promoting the socialization of non-cash payments according to the Government's orientation.

Businesses also commented that this payment method helps reduce transaction costs, increase control over payments and facilitate cash flow management. Businesses can make online payment transactions 24/7 without intermediaries, thereby reducing waiting time and limiting errors.

Therefore, Mr. Luu Hoang, Director of the Treasury Management Department (KBNN) said that in the future, he will continue to closely coordinate with commercial banks to expand the number of banks implementing electronic bilateral payments.

Perfecting the centralized payment model

However, according to experts, along with these strong steps, the State Treasury needs to be one step ahead in reforming policy mechanisms and business processes, especially reforming the payment model towards concentration and high specialization, in line with the requirements of digital technology development.

Notably, the State Treasury Development Strategy to 2030 has set out the requirement to provide account management services and revenue and expenditure of state financial funds through the State Treasury's centralized payment account to ensure transparency and efficiency; perfect the State Treasury's centralized payment model in line with the roadmap for building and developing the national digital payment infrastructure, meeting the Government's requirements for seamless payment...

At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the principle that at each banking system, the State Treasury has only one account and at the end of the day, the entire state budget balance is concentrated in the State Treasury's consolidated payment account at the State Bank.

The State Treasury said that recently, the unit has piloted the connection of 3 professional applications including: Online public services - Budget and treasury management information system (Tabmis) - Electronic bilateral payment, thereby improving the productivity and operational efficiency of the State Treasury's civil servants.

Accordingly, for regular payment documents of transaction units transferred to the State Treasury on online public services for bilateral payment with commercial banks, after the transaction officer receives and completes the information, the chief accountant and the leader of the Treasury unit sign and approve on the online public service program, the documents are automatically linked to the Tabmis interface, electronic bilateral payment and automatically transferred to the commercial bank without the need for any manual processing as before.

Therefore, the recent report of the State Treasury said that it has submitted to the Ministry of Finance a project on a centralized payment model between the State Treasury and commercial banks. When approved and implemented, the project is expected to help centralize payment activities and payment management of the State Treasury, improving the efficiency of state budget management.