The purchase will be made to compensate for the rice the Government has taken from the national reserve to distribute to natural disasters victims, help the poor on the lunar New Year occasion and between-harvest, and to provide for international aid. The approval followed a Government report delivered by Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung at the NA Standing Committee’s 19th meeting.The report said that from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017, the Prime Minister had assigned the ministry to take 58,885 tonnes of rice worth about VND553 billion (US$24.2 million) from the national reserve for the above-said purposes.To date the ministry has completed the distribution of this amount of rice.Therefore, the Government asked for the NA Standing Committee’s approval of extracting VND553 billion from the State budget 2017 to make up for the used amount of rice.