Legal Document Updates in English (35/2021)

TO CONSIDER REDUCING 80% OF DEPOSIT
FOR TRAVEL SERVICE BUSINESS BY THE END OF 2023

The Resolution No. 105/NQ-CP on supporting enterprises, cooperatives and business households amid the COVID-19 pandemic is issued on September 09, 2021 by the Government.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and relevant ministries and agencies to soon allow travel service businesses to receive an 80% reduction in deposit for travel service business by the end of 2023, reduce the time for settlement of deposit refunds for travel services from 60 days to 30 days.

The Ministry of Finance shall timely implement policies on the relaxation and reduction of taxes, fees, charges and land rentals after being promulgated by competent agencies; implement preferential tax policies for imported goods to finance COVID-19 prevention and control after being approved by the Government.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shall urgently submit for the promulgation of policies related to the reduction of contributions or support from the balance of the

social insurance fund in a short term to promptly provide support to employees, businesses, cooperatives, business households and other groups of employers, such task must be completed in September 2021; direct and guide the Vietnam Social Security to research and propose exemption from fines for late payment of social insurance arising in 2020 and 2021 in accordance with law regulations, such task must be completed in September 2021.

Besides, the Ministry of Finance shall direct the General Department of Customs to allow enterprises, cooperatives and business households to submit scanned copies certified by digital signatures for documents that must be submitted as originals in the form of paper/notarized/certified copies in accordance with regulations of ministries and agencies to solve bottlenecks upon clearing goods; enterprises, cooperatives and business households shall supplement such documents after the goods are cleared for post-inspection.

This Resolution takes effect from the signing date.

GUIDANCE ON ENTERPRISE INCOME TAX FOR SOCIALIZATION ESTABLISHMENTS

On August 17, 2021, the Ministry of Finance issues the Circular No. 71/2021/TT-BTC on guiding the socialization establishment’s enterprise income tax that has not been retrospectively collected under the Government’s Resolution No. 63/NQ-CP dated August 25, 2014.

Accordingly, socialization establishments established before July 22, 2016 and earning income from socialization activities shall be responsible for performing enterprise income tax obligations as follows:

Firstly, socialization establishments shall be entitled to enterprise income tax incentives as prescribed by law and the Prime Minister’s decision in each period (if they satisfy conditions specified in the list attached to the Decisions No. 1466/QD-TTg, 693/QD-TTg, and 1470/QD-TTg).

Secondly, socialization establishments that do not satisfy the conditions under the Prime Minister’s Decisions shall

additionally declare unpaid enterprise income tax amounts (if any), calculate by themselves payable enterprise income tax amounts, or tax authorities shall retrospectively collect enterprise income tax amounts under the Law on Tax Administration and its guiding documents until socialization establishments satisfy the conditions specified in the Prime Minister’s Decisions.

Thirdly, socialization establishments with arising enterprise income tax as prescribed shall not be sanctioned for violations of the tax laws and shall not be subject to late-payment interests on the amount of enterprise income tax that has not been temporarily retrospectively collected under Article 24 of the Ministry of Finance’s Circular No. 151/2014/TT-BTC dated October 10, 2014 until the effective date of this Circular.

This Circular takes effect on November 01, 2021.

TO RESCHEDULE DEBT FOR CLIENTS UNTIL JUNE 30, 2022

The Circular No. 14/2021/TT-NHNN amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Circular No. 01/2020/TT-NHNN dated March 13, 2020 of the State Bank Governor of Vietnam on credit institutions and foreign bank branches carrying out debt rescheduling, giving exemption from or reduction of loan interests and charges, and maintaining classified loan groups in order to help their clients affected by the Covid-19 pandemic is issued on September 07, 2021 by the State Bank of Vietnam.

Accordingly, credit institutions and foreign bank branches shall reschedule debit of balance of loan principal and/or interest of the debt that fully meet the following conditions: Arising before August 01, 2021, from lending and financial leasing activities; Giving rise to obligations to repay loan principals and/or interests from January 23, 2020 to June 30, 2022; etc.

Apart from the above-mentioned conditions, the following conditions must also be satisfied: Clients are unable to make due payment of their loan principals and/or interests under

FULLY VACCINATED PEOPLE RETURNING FROM PANDEMIC-HIT AREAS
SHALL ONLY HAVE TO SELF-MONITOR HEALTH FOR 7 DAYS

This highlight content is prescribed in the Ministry of Health’s Official Dispatch No. 6386/BYT-MT on applying COVID-19 prevention and control measures for people returning from pandemic-hit areas.

Specifically, people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (having vaccination certification on the electronic health record or a certificate of having received full doses of COVID-19 vaccine issued by the vaccinating facility, in which the last dose must be taken at least 14 days and no more than 12 months up to the time of arrival/return to the locality), or people who have recovered from COVID-19 (having a certificate of a positive test for SAR-COV-2 by RT-PCR method of single sample no more than 6 months up to the time of arrival/return to the locality) and possess a certificate of recovery from COVID-19 or hospital discharge paper)

shall only have to self-monitor their health status at home or accommodations within 07 days after returning from pandemic-hit areas, and shall be tested twice on the first and the seventh days.

People not fully vaccinated or unvaccinated people shall be quarantined at home or accommodations for 14 days after returning from pandemic-hit areas, and continue to self-monitor their health status for the next 14 days. They shall be tested three times, on the first, seventh, and fourteenth days during the home quarantine period.

Also in accordance with this Official Dispatch, people from other provinces, cities, or areas passing through pandemic-hit areas without stopping or parking shall not be subject to quarantine measures.

TO APPROVE THE MASTER PLAN ON THE ROAD NETWORK FOR THE 2021-2030 PERIOD

On September 01, 2021, the Prime Minister issues the Decision No. 1454/QD-TTg approving the master plan on the road network for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision toward 2050.

Accordingly, the master plan is approved by the Prime Minister, with the target that, by 2030, the volume of transported cargoes will reach around 2,764 million tons (62.80% of total market share); and number of transported passengers will reach around 9,430 million (90.16% of total market share); the domestic goods circulation volume will reach around 162.7 billion tons.km, etc.

The expressway network shall be planned into 41 routes of a total length of some 9,014 km, specifically as follows: The eastern north-south expressway from Huu Nghi border gate in Cao Loc district, Lang Son province to Ca Mau city, Ca Mau province, of a total length of 2,063 km, and with between

4 and 10 lanes; Hanoi capital will have 3 ring road routes of a total length of around 429 km (excluding sections overlapping other expressways), and with 6 lanes; Ho Chi Minh City will have 2 ring road routes of a total length of around 291 km, and with 8 lanes, etc.

The national highway network will consist of 172 routes of a total length of around 29,795 km. In the southern region, the main national highway system consisting of 17 routes, of grade III or higher grade and a total length of around 2,426 km, with between 2 and 4 lanes, and with a number of sections designed for large traffic flows, of grade III or higher grade, and with between 4 and 6 lanes.

This Decision takes effect on the signing date.

THE 2021-2025 FIVE-YEAR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The Resolution No. 99/NQ-CP promulgating the Action Program of the Government for the 2021-2026 tenure to implement the National Assembly's Resolution on the 2021-2025 five-year socio-economic development plan is issued on August 30, 2021 by the Government.

The plan consists of 23 targets; including a number of important targets such as the gross domestic product (GDP) will be 6.5-7% per year on average during the 5 years; processing and manufacturing industries will account for over 25% of GDP while the digital economy will account for around 20% of GDP; etc. In order to ensure fast and sustainable economic growth, the Government assigns ministries, central and local agencies the following tasks:

Firstly, to give priority to protect the people's health and lives; drastically prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic; absolutely not to be subjective, negligent, lose vigilance; to step up the implementation of the nationwide vaccination campaign in a timely, safe, scientific and effective manner in

order to achieve herd immunity at the latest by the end of 2021 or in early 2022.

By 2025, to reduce at least 10% of the number of public non-business units nationwide and 10% of non-business payrolls receiving salaries from the state budget in comparison with 2021; strive to have at least 20% financial autonomy units; continue to reduce on average 10% of direct expenditure from the state budget to public non-business units compared to the 2016-2020 period.

Noticeably, the Government requests to concentrate resources to implement wage reform from July 01, 2022; not to use the residual salary reform source for capital construction investment and other purposes unless otherwise permitted by the National Assembly's resolution, etc.

This Resolution takes effect on the signing date.

TASK ASSIGNMENT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND 4 DEPUTY PRIME MINISTERS

On September 06, 2021, the Prime Minister issues the Decision No. 1460/QD-TTg on task assignment of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Politburo member, Secretary of the Government's Party Civil Affairs Committee shall comprehensively lead and manage all activities within the ambit of the Government’s functions, tasks and powers. He shall personally direct and administer the following fields: National socio-economic development strategies and plans; Personnel work, apparatus organization, administration reform, state administrative boundaries, and general issues on emulation and commendation, etc.

PERFECTING THE STATE STEERING COMMITTEE FOR KEY PETROLEUM PROJECTS

The Prime Minister promulgates the Decision No. 1455/QD-TTg on perfecting the State Steering Committee for key petroleum projects on September 02, 2021.

Specifically, the State Steering Committee for key petroleum projects is perfected as follows: Head of the Committee - Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh; Permanent Deputy Head of the Committee - Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien; Deputy Heads of the Committee including Chairman of the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises Nguyen Hoang Anh; Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An; Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung.

Tasks of the Steering Committee include: Directing, inspecting and speeding up the implementation of 

the Prime Minister’s decisions on construction investment in key petroleum projects; Directing related ministries, sectors, People's Committees of provinces, together with project owners, domestic and foreign consulting organizations, contractors to carry out the contents according to the tasks to ensure the construction progress and quality of works of key petroleum projects; etc.

The Steering Committee shall operate under the regulation promulgated by the Head of the Steering Committee. The Head, Deputy Heads and members of the Steering Committee shall work on a part-time basis.

This Decision takes effect on the signing date.