The Ministry of Finance is currently seeking comments on a draft Circular proposing the complete or partial repeal of Circulars providing guidance on interest rate support and interest rate subsidies under the State’s preferential credit policies.
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According to the Ministry of Finance, over the years, the Government and the Prime Minister have introduced various preferential credit programs to support socio-economic development, poverty reduction, agricultural production, fisheries development, and forest protection and development. To implement these programs, the Ministry of Finance has issued a number of Circulars providing guidance on mechanisms for interest rate support and interest rate subsidies for banks implementing these policies.
The Ministry of Finance’s review report shows that interest rate support policies have contributed to reducing capital costs for individuals and businesses, supporting agricultural production, sustainable poverty reduction, the development of the marine economy, forest protection, and the effective implementation of social welfare programs.
However, the legal framework has undergone significant changes. On May 15, 2026, the Government issued Decree No. 157/2026/ND-CP on the payment and settlement of state budget funds for providing interest rate subsidies to commercial banks implementing the State’s preferential credit policies, which took effect on July 1, 2026. The Decree establishes unified provisions on the payment and settlement of interest rate subsidies, making a number of provisions in existing Circulars unnecessary or overlapping.
This is considered an important basis for the Ministry of Finance to review and propose the repeal of provisions that are no longer appropriate, thereby ensuring consistency within the legal system.
One of the most notable aspects of the draft is the proposal to completely repeal three Circulars, namely Circular No. 53/2000/TT-BTC providing guidance on interest rate differential subsidies arising from the implementation of the State’s development investment credit lending programs; Circular No. 02/2001/TT-BTC amending and supplementing Circular No. 53/2000/TT-BTC; and Circular No. 81/2016/TT-BTC providing guidance on interest rate support mechanisms for implementing the credit policy under Decree No. 75/2015/ND-CP on forest protection and development.
According to the drafting agency, the provisions on interest rate differential subsidies under Circular No. 53/2000/TT-BTC and Circular No. 02/2001/TT-BTC have been replaced by the provisions of Decree No. 157/2026/ND-CP. Repealing these documents would not create a legal gap, as the matters they regulate have been fully addressed in a higher-level legal instrument.
Regarding Circular No. 81/2016/TT-BTC, the Ministry of Finance stated that the legal basis for its issuance has expired, and the policy under Decree No. 75/2015/ND-CP has also concluded its implementation period. Currently, only the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies continues to receive state budget interest rate support for outstanding loan balances. Therefore, the draft proposes to repeal the entire Circular, except for Article 2 concerning the interest rate support mechanism for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.
In addition to the complete repeal of certain documents, the draft also proposes the partial repeal of provisions in several other Circulars governing preferential credit programs.
Specifically, Circular No. 183/2009/TT-BTC on the program supporting poor districts under Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP is proposed to have provisions concerning procedures for interest rate subsidies, reporting requirements, and accompanying forms repealed.
Similarly, Circular No. 188/2012/TT-BTC on support for reducing post-harvest losses of agricultural and aquatic products would have provisions concerning applications and procedures for interest rate support, interest rate differential subsidies, reporting requirements, and relevant forms repealed.
For Circular No. 89/2014/TT-BTC on policies supporting the reduction of losses in agriculture, the draft proposes repealing provisions on applications and procedures for interest rate support, interest rate differential subsidies, and the reporting annexes.
In the fisheries sector, Circular No. 114/2014/TT-BTC and Circular No. 123/2018/TT-BTC are also proposed to have provisions concerning interest rate subsidy procedures, reporting requirements, and relevant annexes and forms repealed.
In addition, Circular No. 82/2019/TT-BTC, which amends several provisions of Circular No. 89/2014/TT-BTC, is proposed to have provisions on applications and procedures for interest rate support, interest rate differential subsidies, and reporting requirements repealed.
The common feature of the provisions proposed for repeal is that they relate to procedures for payment and settlement, interest rate support, reporting requirements, and forms that have now been uniformly regulated under Decree No. 157/2026/ND-CP. According to the Ministry of Finance, maintaining these provisions in separate Circulars is no longer necessary and could lead to overlaps during implementation.
The review report on the implementation of these Circulars also indicates that many of the documents were issued a long time ago, when the Law on Public Investment and the Law on the State Budget had not yet been amended as they are today. Consequently, certain provisions are no longer consistent with the current legal system or with the requirements for budget management in the new period.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the issuance of Decree No. 157/2026/ND-CP has established a unified legal framework governing the principles, procedures, settlement methods, and mechanisms for supervising interest rate subsidies from the state budget. This helps enhance transparency, accountability, and the efficiency of budget utilization, while providing commercial banks with greater autonomy in the implementation of preferential credit policies.