On January 10, 2023, the Minister of Finance issued Circular 03/2023/TT-BTC stipulating the estimate preparation, use management and expenditure finalization of State budget funds for science and technology tasks (Circular 03). Accordingly, Circular 03 has abolished a number of relevant provisions in Joint Circular 55/2015/TTLT-BTC-BHKCN and Joint Circular 27/2015/TTLT-BHKCN-BTC. Although the scope of governance of Circular 03 focuses on the estimate preparation, use management and expenditure finalization of State budget funds for science and technology tasks, the Ministry of Finance encourages organizations to use funds other than the State budget for science and technology tasks as prescribed in this Circular. The following demonstrates several noteworthy contents in this Circular:
(i) Amending the regulations on input elements constituting the State budget estimate for science and technology tasks;
(ii) Amending the framework of norms as the basis for formulating the State budget estimate for performing science and technology tasks;
(iii) Concretizing the contents and norms of expenditures for management of science and technology tasks.
