Legal Document Updates in English (42/2013)

TO REVOKE OPERATION CERTIFICATE OF REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OF SECURITY TRADING ORGANIZATIONS

Circular No. 91/2013/TT-BTC of June 28, 2013, guiding the registration of establishment, organization and operation of Vietnam-based representative offices of foreign securities trading organizations and Vietnam-based branches of foreign fund management companies. Accordingly, the Circular also provides remarkable regulations on withdrawal of Certificate of representative offices operated by foreign securities trading organizations.
Specifically, depending on the nature and seriousness of its violation, a foreign securities trading organization may have its representative office operation registration certificate revoked in the following cases: The parent company or representative office violates regulations on foreign exchange management, internal transactions, market manipulation and other prohibited transactions in accordance with the Vietnamese law; or fails to fulfill tax and other financial obligations toward the Vietnamese State in accordance with law; the representative offices operates for improper purposes, or inconsistently with

the function or other contents stated in the representative office operation registration certificate or other regulations on operation of representative offices; the representative office fails to send reports as requested by the State Securities Commission; the representative office fails to commence its operation within twelve (12) months after obtaining the operation registration certificate…
After receiving the State Securities Commission’s on-principle written approval of termination of operation of the representative office, the representative office shall carry out the procedures for its closure, including: Publicizing information on operation termination on three (3) consecutive issues of a central or local newspaper of the locality where the representative office is located for related organizations and individuals to know and settle related interests; fulfilling tax and financial obligations toward the State in accordance with current laws…
This Circular takes effect on November 1, 2013.

TO REDUCE 50% OF VAT ON COMMERCIAL HOUSING UNDER 72 M2 AREA

A 50% reduction in VAT on the sale, lease or hire-purchase of commercial housing that are finished apartments with floor areas of under 70 m2 and are sold at under 15 million VND/m2 from Jul 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. This content was mentioned in Circular 141/2013/TT-BTC dated October 16, 2013 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of the Government’s Decree No. 92/2013/ND-CP dated August 13, 2013 on elaborating the implementation of  several articles that comes into effect from July 1, 2013 in the Law on the Amendments and Supplement to the Law on Enterprise Income Tax and the Law on Amendment and Supplement to the Law on Value Added Tax.
The application of 50% reduction in VAT on the sale, lease of commercial housing must meet the following requirements: The commercial housing used to sell and lease must be finished apartments with floor areas mentioned in the contract as under 70 m2 and are sold at under VND15 million/m2; the selling

TO DEVELOP THE VIETNAM-CAMBODIA LAND BORDER GATE SYSTEM THROUGH 2020

Decision No. 1490/QD-TTg of August 26, 2013, approving the master plan on development of the Vietnam-Cambodia land border gate system through 2020.
Accordingly, from 2013 to 2020, the People’s Committees of the provinces bordering Cambodia shall, based on local socio-economic development conditions, comprehensively consider and proactively negotiate with Cambodia and report to the governments of the two countries for consideration of opening and upgrading of 3 international land border gates (border gate of Bu Prang, Ma Quy Tay and Vinh Xuong), 1 international railway border gate (Hoa Lu border gate), and 9 principal land border gates, which are expected to be located in the Central Highlands, Southeastern and Southwestern regions. Other border gates will be selected for investment in infrastructure upgrading and equipment modernization on the principles prioritizing capital for transitional construction works which are about to be completed, or

TO PROMULGATE UNIT PRICE OF DOMESTIC WATER IN HANOI

Decision No. 38/2013/QD-UBND dated September 19, 2013 of the People’s Committee of Hanoi City on promulgating domestic water price in geographical areas of Hanoi City.
Accordingly, from October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014, the unit price of clean water from the completed and concentrated water supply system in geographical areas of Hanoi City for daily-life purpose are prescribed as follows: For the first 10m3 of water, the unit price is fixed as VND 4,172/m3; from 10m3 or more, the unit price will gradually be leveled up, specifically:  VND 4,930/m3; VND 6,068 /m3 and VND 10,619/m3 are respectively applied for the daily- life purpose of between 10m3- 20m3,

TO DEVELOP 12 NEW NATIONAL MEASUREMENT STANDARDS BY 2020

This is one of the objectives of the master plan on developing national measurement standards by 2020 approved by the Prime Minister in the Decision No. 1361/QD-TTg of August 8, 2013.

Accordingly, the main task of the master plan during 2013- 2015 is to develop and expand the scope of metrology and raise the level of 13 approved national measurement standards including 4 base quantities (length, mass, time - frequency and thermodynamic temperature) and 9 derived quantities (capacity, volumetric flow rate of liquids, volumetric flow rate and mass flow rate of gases, hardness, pressure, direct current voltage, direct current resistance, industrial frequency electricity output, industrial frequency electricity energy); simultaneously to invest in developing 12 new national measurement standards including 3 base quantities (current intensity, light intensity and matter quantity ) and 9 derived quantities

OVERSEAS REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OF VIETNAMESE NEWS AND PRESS AGENCIES WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN 32 COUNTRIES BY 2015

This is the objective proposed by the Prime Minister in the Master plan on the network of overseas representative offices of Vietnamese news and press agencies through 2020
Accordingly, with an aim at promoting cooperation with foreign news and press agencies worldwide to share and exchange information and to provide official information on Vietnam, prioritizing the establishment of overseas bureaus in key areas of external information, the objective of the master plan is to establish overseas bureaus in 32 countries and territories (Adding 3 more countries in list such as: