Decision No. 33/2015/QD-TTg dated August 10, 2015 of the Prime Minister, on assistance policy for housing to poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011 – 2015 (poverty assistance program for housing under decision no. 167/2008/QD-TTg stage 2)

THE PRIME MINISTER

Decision No. 33/2015/QD-TTg dated August 10, 2015 of the Prime Minister, on assistance policy for housing to poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011 – 2015 (poverty assistance program for housing under decision no. 167/2008/QD-TTg stage 2)

Pursuant to the Law on organization of Government dated 25 December 2001;

Pursuant to the Housing Law dated 29 November 2005;

Pursuant to Decision No. 2127/QD-TTg dated 30 November 2011 of the Prime Minister approving the national housing strategy by 2020 with a vision to 2030.

At the request of the Minister of Construction,

The Prime Minister issues the Decision on assistance policy for housing to poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011 – 2015 (poverty assistance program for housing under Decision No. 167/2008/QD-TTG stage 2)

Article 1. Objectives and implementation principles

1. Objectives: To provide the housing assistance to about 311.000 poor households in rural areas (based on survey report of localities) to ensure they have safe and stable houses and gradually improve living standards and contribute to the hunger elimination and poverty reduction.

2. Principles of assistance

a) Assistance to each household to ensure democracy, openness, fairness and transparency on a basis of law and policies of the state and in accordance with custom of each nation, region and area; conservation of cultural identity of each nation to consist with the practical conditions and to be associated with the planning and social – economic development plan of each locality and to contribute to the implementation of new rural building program;

b) Mobilization from various capital sources for implementation and working cooperation between the State and people. The assistance is done on the principles: The State provides assistance by loan to newly build or repair houses with preferential interests, assistance from community or the households build houses by themselves.

c) After being given assistance, the households should build new houses or repair or innovate their existing houses to ensure the usable area of at least 24 m2 (for helpless single households that may build smaller houses but must be over 18 m²) and “3 hard” (hard floor, hard framework-wall and hard roof); the life service of such houses from 10 years or more and must be safe in case of storm and whirlwind;

d) Households provided with assistance for housing (including new building, repair or renovation of house) are issued with certificate of land use right, ownership of house and other properties associated with land under regulations of law on land (in case of request) and only transfer such houses after paying off their loans (principal and interest) to the Social Policy Bank.

Article 2. Subjects and conditions for housing assistance

1. Subjects

The households provided with assistance for housing as stipulated by this Regulation must be the poor households under the poverty criteriaspecified in Decision No. 09/2011/QD-TTg dated 30 January 2011 of the Prime Minister on issuing criteria for poor households and households near poverty line applied for period 2011-2015, must be included in the list of poor households under the management of communal-level People’s Committee at the effective time of this Decision and must be independent households with the time of household separation by the effective time of this Decision of at least 05 years.

2. Conditions

a) Have no house or unsettled, damaged, dilapidated house and at risk of collapse without ability to improve their houses

b) Not yet received the housing assistance from the assistance programs and policies of the state and other social political organization;

c) In case of being provided with housing assistance from other assistance programs and policies, such households must meet the following criteria: house was collapsed or is seriously damaged and at risk of collapse due to natural disaster like storm, flood, earthquake, land slide or fire but without capital for repair or rebuilding; provided assistance from other housing assistance programs and policies for over 08 years by the time of effect of this Decision but such houses are presently damaged, dilapidated and at risk of collapse.

3. The following cases are not entitled to assistance under the provisions of this Decision:

a) Households entitled to housing assistance under the Decision No. 1776/QD-TTg dated 21 November 2012 of the Prime Minister on approving the residential arrangement program in areas of natural disaster, particularly disadvantaged areas, border and island areas, free migration, special-use forests for the period 2013-2015 with a vision to 2020;

b) Households entitled to the housing assistance under the Decision No. 1151/QD-TTg dated 26 August 2008 of the Prime Minister additionally approving the investment projects (stage 2) under the Program of building of residential and housing cluster and zones in flooded areas in Mekong Delta.

c) Households entitled to the housing assistance under the Decision No. 22/2013/QD-TTg dated 26 June 2013 of the Prime Minister on providing assistance for people with meritorious services to the revolution.

d) Households entitled to the housing assistance under the Decision No. 716/QD-TTg dated 14 June 2012 of the Prime Minister on pilot implementation of solution to providing assistance for poor households to improve their accommodation conditions and safety in order to respond to the floods and inundation in the North Central and Central coast;

dd) Households entitled to the housing assistance under the Decision No. 48/2014/QD-TTg dated 28 August 2014 of the Prime Minister on policy on providing assistance for poor households in house building to prevent storms and floods in Central regions.

Article 3. Scope of application

The housing assistance policy to the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 is applied to the households subject to the provisions of this Decision residing in rural areas or at villages, hamlet, mountain village, highland village (commonly referred to as hamlet) directly under ward, town or commune directly under town, provincial city but living mainly by agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Article 4. Priority classification for assistance

Priority is given to the subjects in the order as follows:

1. Households with particularly disadvantaged status (being aged, disabled or living alone)

2. Households as ethnic minorities.

3. Households living in areas with regular occurrence of natural disaster.

4. Households living in particularly disadvantaged hamlets and mountain villages.

5. Households living in administrative units in disadvantaged areas.

6. Households living in poor districts as stipulated in Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated 27 December 2008 of the Government.

7. Other remaining households.

Article 5. Funds for implementation, interest difference compensation, capital finalization for interest difference compensation, loan rate, mode of loan, disbursement of loan and procedures for loan

1. Capital for implementation

a) Capital from preferential loan

The Social Policy Bank shall make loan to the eligible households at the rate specified in this Decision. The loan capital shall be funded by 50% from the central budget over the total loan capital to the Social Policy Bank, the remaining 50% shall be mobilized by the Social Policy Bank.

b) The capital mobilized from the “Fund for the poor” which the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels and other member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front coordinate to mobilize from social community and enterprises. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry shall coordinate to mobilize other enterprises to support the “Fund for the poor” and assist the Program.

c) Capital of households mobilized from their family and relatives;

d) Capital integrated from other programs and objectives.

2. Interest difference compensation

The state budget shall compensate for the interest difference to the Social Policy Bank for policy implementation as follows:

a) For localities which have not balanced their budget and Quang Ngai province, the central budget shall ensure 100% of interest difference compensation to the Social Policy Bank;

b) For localities with regulatory ratio of revenues divided to the central budget of less than 50% and the central budget shall provide 50%, the local budget shall ensure 50% of interest difference compensation between the average interest of bond guaranteed by the Government and mobilized by the Social Policy Bank with lending interest for program implementation and average actual loan outstanding balance (calculated by the numerical analysis method) of the program.

c) For the remaining localities, the local budget ensures 100% of interest difference compensation between the average interest of bond guaranteed by the Government and mobilized by the Social Policy Bank with lending interest for program implementation and average actual loan outstanding balance (calculated by the numerical analysis method) of the program.

3. Finalization of interest difference compensation capital

The Social Policy Bank is responsible for calculating and identifying the average interest difference and average actual loan outstanding balance of each locality. At the end of financial year, the branch of Social Policy Bank at localities specified under Point b and c, Clause 2 of Article 5 shall calculate the interest difference compensation of local budget. On the basis of number of interest difference compensation of local budget, the Social Policy Bank shall aggregate and report it to the Ministry of Construction, Finance, Planning and Investment to identify the total interest difference compensation from the local budget for the Social Policy Bank.

4. Loan rate

The households subject to the provisions of this Decision in need of loan may lend up to 25 million dong/household from the Social Policy Bank to newly build or repair their houses with interest of 3%/year, lending period of 15 years with the grace period of 5 years. The time of repayment is 10 years maximally starting from the 6^thyear and the minimum annual rate of repayment is 10% of the total loan capital.

5. Mode of loan

The Social Policy Bank shall make loan as stipulated by the State Bank of Vietnam.

In addition to loan rate, the households shall contribute and mobilize other capital sources from the community to build or repair their houses to ensure the prescribed scale and quality.

6. Loan disbursement

The communal People’s Committee shall certify the progress of house building of the poor households in the area and send report to the Social Policy Bank.

The Social Policy Bank shall disburse 100% of loan capital as prescribed to the households newly building their houses after finishing the foundation and to the households repairing or renovating their existing houses after finishing 30% of volume of work.

7. Procedures for loan

a) Review, selection and approval for list of assisted households.

The hamlets shall review, select and classify the priority in accordance with regulation to ensure democracy, openness, fairness and transparency and send the list of selected households to the communal People’s Committee.

The communal People’s Committee shall review such list and send it to the district People’s Committee for report to the provincial People’s Committee as a basis for establishment and approval for the housing assistance Plan to the households under the poverty criteria

b) Capital for house building.

The provincial People’s Committee shall send the list of poor households entitled to housing assistance to the Social Policy Bank for loan;

The management, disperse, payment and finalization of capital shall comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance;

For loan, such households shall comply with the procedures for loan under the guidance of the Social Policy Bank;

For capital mobilized from the “Fund for the poor” and other voluntary contributions in the area, the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels shall coordinate with the People’s Committees at the same levels to provide the assistance for the entitled households.

c) House building

The communal People’s Committee shall direct, guide, inspect and urge the households to build and repair houses to ensure the requirements on surface and quality as stipulated by this Decision and persuade the households to build or repair their house on their own. For disadvantaged households (being aged, helpless, disabled…).

Article 6. Management expenses

The provinces and centrally-run cities shall use the local budget to allocate fund for management and implementation of policy (for provincial, district and communal levels) with the maximum rate of less than 0.5% of the total loan capital from the Social Policy Bank for implementation of policy as prescribed.

Article 7. Time and progress of implementation

1. After the effective date of this Decision, the provinces and centrally-run cities shall review, select and make a list of poor households entitled to assistance as prescribed while developing and approving the housing assistance Plan for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 in the areas on the basis of guiding documents of the Ministry of Construction.

2. Implementation of housing assistance for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 under the provisions of this Decision within 06 years from 2015 to 2020 as follows:

- 2015: Development and approval for plan;

- 2016: Providing assistance to about 10% of entitled subjects;

- 2017: Providing assistance to about 20% of entitled subjects;

- 2018: Providing assistance to about 25% of entitled subjects;

- 2019: Providing assistance to about 25% of entitled subjects;

- 2020: Providing assistance to about 20% of entitled subjects; aggregating and assessing the result of policy implementation.

3. Organizing the summary, assessment and experience learning from the policy implementation within 03 months after the completion of assistance to the poor households.

Article 8. Implementation organization

1. For Ministries and central sectors

a) Ministry of Construction

- Coordinates with the relevant Ministries: Planning and Investment, Finance, Labor-Invalids and Social Affairs to provide guidelines for the provinces and centrally-run cities to prepare the housing assistance Plan for poor households under the poverty households for the period 2011 – 2015 of the provinces and centrally-run cities.

- Coordinates with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, Social Policy Bank and relevant Ministries and sectors and invites the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front to inspect and urge localities in implementation of housing assistance policy in accordance with the objectives and requirements; aggregates the result of implementation and makes report to the Prime Minister once a year.

- Strengthens the Coordination Committee of implementation of assistance policy to the poor households for housing (referred to as Coordination Committee) in order to assume the task of directing the implementation of housing assistance policy for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015;

- Prepares the annual operational cost estimate of the Coordination Committee to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance to allocate the operational fund to the Coordination Committee;

b) The Ministry of Planning and Investment

Based on the registration of annual capital plan from the state budget of the Social Policy Bank, coordinates with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Construction to aggregate the plan, balance, allocate capital and compensate for the interest difference to the Social Policy Bank in the annual budget estimate as stipulated by this Decision.

c) The Ministry of Finance

- On the basis of total interest difference compensation aggregated by the Social Policy Bank, the Ministry of Finance shall coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to inspect and report to the Prime Minister on the implementation of deduction from the total interest difference compensation from the central budget to the Social Policy Bank.

- Coordinates with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to balance, allocate capital and compensate for interest difference in a timely manner to the Social Policy Bank as prescribed;

- Coordinates with the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to balance and allocate the operational cost of the Coordination Committee to the regular expenditure sources of the Ministry of Construction as per the annual cost estimate.

d) The Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs shall guide the localities to identify the particularly disadvantaged hamlet and coordinate with the Ministries, sectors and localities to inspect the policy implementation to the ethnic minorities.

dd) The State Bank of Vietnam shall direct, monitor, urge and inspect the loan making from the Social Policy Bank.

e) The Social Policy Bank shall develop the capital utilization plan and the interest difference compensation plan to be submitted to the competent authorities for prescribed approval; carry out the loan and recover loan and settle risk of debt under the current regulation; provide guidance on documents and procedures for loan as prescribed to ensure the simplicity, clearness and easy implementation.

2. For People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities:

a) Take responsibility for development and approval of Plan and implementation of housing assistance to poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011 – 2015 in the areas to ensure the progress specified in this Decision.

b) Publicize criteria and subjects and direct the selection and making of list of poor households to be assisted in the areas; classify the prescribed assistance priority for subjects; direct the development and approval for the list poor households entitled to loan for house building as stipulated by this Decision.

c) Send the housing assistance Plan for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 in the approved areas to the Ministry of Construction and also send it to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, State Bank, Social Policy Bank within 03 months from the effective date of this Decision to allocate capital, urge, inspect, aggregate and report to the Prime Minister;

d) Assign the organization and direction of implementation of housing assistance policy for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 to the implementation steering Committee of Program 167 (for localities having no such Committee, assign the tasks to the implementation steering Committee of poverty reduction targets at all levels of provinces and centrally-run cities); assign the Department of Construction as a standing organ to direct the implementation of housing assistance policy for the poor households under the poverty criteria for the period 2011-2015 as stipulated by this Decision; direct the Department of Construction to design a number of appropriate house samples for people to refer and choose.

dd) Arrange sufficient fund for management and implementation of policy as stipulated by this Decision; direct the relevant organs and local authorities to coordinate with the organizations and unions in the areas to persuade the community to provide assistance for poor households to build their houses.

In addition, depending on practical conditions, the provinces and centrally-run cities shall provide additional assistance from the local budget to improve the quality of house of such households.

e) Regularly inspect and supervise the implementation to ensure the policy comes to each poor household which is in difficulty of housing without loss and negative acts and ensure the poor households have their own houses after receiving the assistance as stipulated by this Decision; take preventive measures to prevent the improper transfer of house.

g) Make brief report each month and annual report on implementation result to the Ministry of Construction for aggregation and report to the Prime Minister.

h) Direct the capital planning for policy implementation (including all capital sources) and make annual implementation progress and disbursement result to the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, State Bank, Social Policy Bank as the ground for aggregated loan plan.

3. For the Central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union:

a) Directs the Union levels to propagate and disseminate policies and take part in persuading organizations and enterprises and communities to provide assistance in cash and with constructional materials or labor days to help poor households build their houses.

b) Direct the Unions levels to participate in building houses for poor households and coordinates with the communal People’s Committee to build houses for the disadvantaged subjects (being aged, helpless and disabled).

4. Request the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front to continue promoting the campaign "Day for the Poor" and coordinating with the Government and authorities at all levels, member organizations of Vietnam Fatherland Front to actively mobilize more resources to provide assistance for the poor households to build their houses and supervise the process of implementation of housing assistance policy for the poor households to ensure the proper objectives and requirements.

Coordinate with the Ministry of Construction and other relevant Ministries and sectors in allocating capital mobilized by the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front Vietnam, the member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Vietnam and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (including capital in cash or in kind such as house and constructional materials) to localities rationally and fairly.

TheVietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry should actively persuade enterprises to provide assistance for the poor households to build their houses.

Article 9. Effect

The Decision takes effect on October 01, 2015.

Article10. Implementation responsibilities

The Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level organs, governmental organs, Chairman of People’s Committee of provinces and centrally-cities shall implement this Decision./.

The Prime Minister

Nguyen Tan Dung