Da Nang budget hurt as cash cow in trouble A woman grazes her cows past a residence area in Cam Le, Da Nang August 25, 2013. Tuoi Tre Municipal budget collection in the coastal city of Da Nang has slumped recently as the real-estate sector, its cash cow, has turned ice cold. The most active city in central Vietnam is now facing its largest challenge after 15 years of rapidly growing into a regional hub. During the first six months of this year, the city’s People’s Committee has managed to add only VND5.2 trillion (US$247.2 million) to its municipal treasury, according to a recent report. This is only 44 percent of the city’s full-year target. Meanwhile, the city’s public spending in the first half of the year topped VND7.6 trillion, or 56.5 percent of the estimates. The overspending of VND2.4 trillion has resulted in a headache for local officials, who failed to meet seven out of 11 economic targets it set last year. In 2012, total budget collection was VND10.91 trillion, or 81 percent of the full-year target, while expenditure stood at VND13.6 trillion. In response to rising concerns over the city’s overspending, Van Huu Chien, chairman of the people’s committee, said at a meeting last week that the economic slowdown is to blame. “Amid these hard economic times, many realty projects have been suspended or canceled, thus strongly reducing the municipal revenues from leasing lands,” Chien explained. The city had last year targeted to rake in VND3.5 trillion from land leasing, while the real figure was only VND1.3 trillion, marking the lowest-ever amount the coastal city has gained from this sector. As for the first six months of this year, leasing land only contributed VND750 billion to the city’s budget, completing only 41.7 percent its plan. Moreover, the land usage fees the city charges realty developers also declined, according to Tran Van Mien, chief of the city’s tax department. Revenue from collecting these fees peaked in 2011, at 138 percent higher than the target, standing at VND5.1 trillion. “But over the last two years, this source of income was no longer the ‘lifebuoy’ for the city’s economy,” Mien admitted.  TUOITRENEWS