The event was chaired by the GCRA Vice Chairwoman Trần Thị Minh Nga and joint by representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, the Central Commission for Mass Mobilization, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Ministry of Public Security, and heads of the GCRA’s concerning departments.

According to Vice Chairwoman Trần Thị Minh Nga, the GCRA has received many written comments from the religious affairs committee in provinces and cities, and religious organizations regarding contents of a draft circular after the Dispatch No.4269 dated April 28, 2021 of the Finance Ministry issued for gathering comments on its draft circular.

Following these comments, the GCRA-held conference aimed to collect opinions of concerning ministries and central agencies on contents related to belief and religion regulated in the draft circular, especially the content on merit money (tien cong duc) that has caused public concern over the past time.

At the event, Director of the GCRA’s Buddhist Affairs Department Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên summarized the comments of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) on the draft circular.

Accordingly, the majority of dignitaries, monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists expressed consensus on the need for a strengthened guidance and state management over activities of relics and festivals including the financial management.

However, the VBS also said that some provisions of the draft circular have still been inadequate when they do not ensure the accuracy, universality, clarity and easy understanding in the language of legal documents (for example, the concept "tien cong duc” or merit money), causing failure in ensuring the religions equality as stipulated in Constitution and current laws.

During the conference, representatives of ministries and central agencies gave their opinions on the name of the draft circular; objects and scope governed by the draft circular (belief or religious worshipping places or both, belief or religious relics or both, belief or religious festivals or both, are relics not under the state management governed by the circular?); concepts need to be defined to ensure the consistency in the implementation of the circular (merit money or tien cong duc, merit box or hom cong duc, cash handout or cash transferred, etc.).

They also recommended that the Ministry of Finance should consider carefully the form of the legal document, the feasibility of the circular in performing state management tasks, and should collect feedbacks from all religious organizations recognized by the state on the draft circular.

Adressing at the conference, the finance ministry’s representative affirmed that the draft circular aimed to guide the management of donations, offerings and fundings at festivals and relics in accordance with the provisions of the state laws such as the Law on State Budget, the Law Cultural heritage, Law on Belief and Religion, Decree No. 110 on management and organization of festivals, and it is not aimed at recovering the state budget or causing interferences in the internal affairs of religious and belief organizations or places, as some organizations and individuals misunderstood.

Up to now, the Ministry of Finance has received a total of 1,333 comments on the draft circular from individuals, agencies and religious organizations in writing and through the ministry's web portal. Along with raised opinions at this conference, the finance ministry would summarize, absorb and revise the draft circular, and later send it to ministries, central agencies and religious organizations for further comments before submitting it to the Prime Minister.