Laws of Vietnam

Article 1.- This Decree provides for charges and fees belonging to the State budget, including:

1. Charges collected from services rendered to non-business activities, public activities or public interests at the request of organizations and/or individuals and not for commercial purposes;

2. Fees collected to service the State administrative management, as prescribed by law or as requested organizations and/or individuals.

Article 2.- Charges and fees belonging to the State budget (hereafter referred collectively to as charges and fees) defined in this Decree are construed as follows:

1. Charges mean a State’s revenue to be used to partly cover the State budget’s expenditure on construction investment, procurement, maintenance and management of national properties, resources or sovereignty in service of organizations and/or individuals engaged in non-business activities, public activities or public interests at their requests and not for commercial purposes;

2. Fees mean a State’s revenue collected from organizations and/or individuals for the State in service of State administrative management work as required or as prescribed by law.

Article 3.- This Decree shall not apply to:

1. Charges and fees belonging to the social welfare, such as social insurance, medical insurance and labor insurance premiums and insurance premiums of other kinds in direct service of the social welfare requirements of premium payers and community, which shall be managed according to other provisions of law;

2. Charges (or membership fees, yearly dues), which are collected according to the statutes of political organizations, socio-political organizations, social organizations or socio-professional organizations;

3. Charges of goods and/or service supply by organizations and/or individuals engaged in production, construction, transport, commerce, catering, services and other business activities (including goods and/or service selling prices and surcharges collected therefrom) which shall be managed according to the State’s price policy;

4. Contributions mobilized from organizations and/or individuals for the construction of infrastructure projects, public-utility projects and other public projects as prescribed by law;

5. Voluntary contributions for charity purposes or in support of cultural, physical culture and sport activities of mass movement character and not for commercial purposes;

Where organizations and/or individuals (including production, business and/or service units) collect charges and/or fees for the State budget, they shall have to manage them according to this Decree.

Illegal mobilization of contributions shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of this Decree.

Article 4.- Organizations and/or individuals provided by the State with services for their non-business activities, public activities, public-interest activities or State administrative management work, which are subject to charges and/or fees as prescribed by law, shall have to pay charges and/or fees according to this Decree.

In cases where charges and/or fees are otherwise provided for by an international agreement which Vietnam has signed or acceded to, such international agreement shall apply.

The agencies competent to issue regulations on charge and/or fee collection and payment shall specify charge and/or fee payers and non-payers according to the provisions of this Article.

Article 5.- Only agencies and/or organizations tasked to collect charges and/or fees under the provisions of law shall be entitled to collect them, including:

1. The State tax agencies;

2. The agencies and/or organizations that manage and use national materials, properties, resources or sovereignty for their non-business activities, public activities or for State administrative management work, which are subject to charges and/or fees as prescribed by law;

All organizations and individuals are strictly prohibited from collecting charges and/or fees without permission and in contravention of the provisions of this Decree.

Article 6.- Contents of State management over charges and fees:

1. Promulgating legal documents on charges and fees;

2. Organizing and guiding the implementation of the legislation on charges and fees;

3. Inspecting and examining the implementation of the legislation on charges and fees;

4. Considering and settling law violations, complaints and denunciations about charges and fees;

5. Annulling, suspending the collection of charges and fees which do not conform or are contrary to law.

Article 7.- State management over charges and fees:

1. The Government shall exercise unified State management over charges and fees;

2. The Ministry of Finance exercising State management over charges and fees shall have to report to the Government for the settlement or settle according to its competence matters related to the State management over charges and fees as prescribed in Article 6 of this Decree;

3. The provincial People’s Committees shall exercise State management over charges and fees in their respective localities and have to advise the provincial People’s Councils on issuance of resolutions regarding the charge and fee collection in the localities and the materialization of contents of State management over charges and fees, that fall under their competence;

4. The ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the agencies attached to the Government and the People’s Committees of different levels shall have to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in exercising the function of State management over charges and fees within the ambit of their tasks and powers.

Article 8.- Competence to promulgate legal documents on charges and fees:

1. The Government shall promulgate list of charges and fees other than those already determined by the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee in various laws and ordinances;

In the course of implementation, if it is necessary to make amendments and/or supplements thereto, the ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the agencies attached to the Government (hereafter referred to as the ministries for short), the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities (the provinces for short) shall submit suggestions to the Ministry of Finance so that the latter makes a sum-up report and submit it to the Government for consideration and decision;

Basing itself on the current laws and ordinances related to charges and fees, the Government issues together with this Decree a list of charges and fees for uniform application throughout the country. The Ministry of Finance shall provide guidance on the scope of application of each kind of charges and/or fees included in the list issued together with this Decree.

All organizations and individuals are strictly prohibited from setting regulations on and organizing the collection of charges and/or fees outside the list mentioned therein.

2. Competence to issue legal documents on the collection, payment and use of charges and fees:

a/ The Government shall determine the collection, remittance and use of a number of charges and fees, which are collected in big amounts, concentratedly and nationwide;

b/ The Ministry of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the relevant ministries and branches in determining the collection, remittance and use of a number of charges and fees which are uniformly applied in the whole country (irrespective of whether they are collected by central or local bodies), and charges and fees, which are collected in a number of provinces and/or cities;

c/ The provincial People’s Committee shall, after the provincial People’s Council issues a resolution on charge and fee collection, prescribe the regime of collection, remittance and use of charges and fees of different kinds on the locality, and the provincial agencies (including districts and communes) shall organize the collection of charges and fees (except for charges and fees determined by the Government or the Ministry of Finance as prescribed in Points a and b, Clause 2 of this Article);

d/ The agencies issuing regulations on the collection, remittance and use of charges and fees as defined in Points b and c, Clause 2 of this Article shall have to submit the issuance decisions to the Government and the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance shall have to oversee and sum up the charges and fees set by the provincial People’s Committees; if detecting any charges or fees set in contravention of this Decree and the relevant legal documents, it must report them to the Government for settlement or handle by itself according to its jurisdiction;

e/ The agencies competent to issue regulations on the collection, remittance and use of charges and fees as defined in this Clause shall not be allowed to authorize other bodies or their subordinates to issue such regulations.

Article 9.- A charge or fee level shall be determined in a certain sum of money or in percentage (%) of capital, property or goods value and on the basis of the necessary expenses, nature and characteristics of each type of non-business activities, public activities, State administrative management work and socio-economic situation in each period, taking into account the characteristics of each region as well as international practices.

Article 10.- Organizations and individuals shall pay charges and fees in Vietnam in Vietnam dong. Where the law stipulates that charges and/or fees shall be collected in foreign currency(ies), such charges and/or fees shall be collected in foreign currency(ies) or in Vietnam dong converted from foreign currency(ies) at the exchange rate(s) on the inter-bank foreign exchange market, which is(are) announced by the State Bank of Vietnam at the time of charge and/or fee collection; organizations and individuals paying charges and fees in foreign countries shall pay them in the currencies of such countries or in US dollar.

Article 11.- Organizations and/or individuals collecting charges and/or fees must issue charge and/or fee receipts to charge and/or fee payers, as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

Organizations and/or individuals paying charges and/or fees must request the charge and/or fee collectors to provide them with charge and/or fee receipts as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

Organizations and/or individuals are strictly forbidden to collect and pay charges and/or fees without vouchers or with vouchers other than those prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

Article 12.- The collected charge and fee amount shall be managed and used as follows:

1. After collecting charges and/or fees, the collecting agencies shall have to deposit them into the State Treasuries at the localities where they are headquartered under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance;

2. All the collected charges and fees belonging to the State budget as defined in this Decree must be fully reflected in the State budget. To create conditions for charge- and fee- collecting agencies to take initiative in performing the State-assigned tasks, the collected charges and fees shall be managed and used as follows:

a/ For charges and fees which the collecting agencies do not have to spend any money on the collection of or such expenses are supplied by the State budget according to their annual draft budget estimates, such collecting agencies shall have to fully remit them into the State budget.

In cases where the agencies and/or organizations are authorized to collect charges and/or fees as an extra work outside their functions and regular tasks, such agencies and/or organizations shall be entitled to a remuneration calculated in percentages of the collected charge and/or fee amount in order to cover the expenses for organizing the collection of such charges and/or fees under the common regulations of the State; It is strictly forbidden to raise charge and/or fee levels for more remuneration.

b/ For charges and fees which the collecting agencies have to pay expenses for the collection of, but such expenses are not supplied to them by the State budget according to their annual draft budget estimates, such collecting agencies shall be entitled to make deduction from the collected charge and/or fee amount to cover the expenses for organizing the charge and/or collection in accordance with the specific regulations on the collection, remittance and use of each kind of charge and/or fee (except for spendings on capital construction investment and irregular expenses which are managed according to separate regulations); the remainder must be fully remitted into the State budget.

The Ministry of Finance shall provide guidance on the deduction and use of the collected charges and fees stipulated in this Clause.

3. Charges and fees belonging to the State budget as prescribed in this Decree shall all be exempt from taxes.

Article 13.- Registration, declaration, remittance and final settlement of charges and fees:

1. Charge and/or fee collecting agencies shall have to register the collection and remittance of charges and/or fees with the tax agencies directly managing them under the latter’s guidance. For agencies and/or organizations collecting charges and/or fees for the first time, they shall have to register the charge and/or fee collection and remittance within 10 days after starting to collect such charges and/or fees; if they change, finish or suspend the collection of charges and/or fees, they must declare such with the tax agencies within 5 days before any change;

2. Charge- and fee- collecting agencies and/or organizations shall have to make declaration of charges and/or fees collected in a month and submit it to the tax agencies within the first 5 days of the following month. The charge- and fee- collecting agencies and/or organizations shall have to make full declaration according to the set form(s) and take responsibility for the accuracy of the declaration;

3. Charge- and fee- collecting agencies and/or organizations shall have to remit fully the collected charge and/or fee amounts fully and on time into the State budget as stated in the tax notices.

The tax agency shall set the time-limit for each charge- and fee- collecting agency or organization to remit the charge and/or fee amounts collected in a month into the State budget, which must not be later than the 15th of the following month.

Agencies and/or organizations shall remit the collected charge and/or fee amount into the State budget in Vietnam dong; where charges and/or fees are collected in foreign currency(ies) as prescribed by law, the collected charge and/or fee amounts must be remitted in foreign currency(ies) into the State budget. Agencies and/or organizations collecting charges and/or fees in foreign countries shall remit the collected charge and/or fee amounts into the State budget according to the guidance of the Ministry of Finance;

4. Charge- and fee- collecting agencies shall have to make the annual final settlement of charges and/or fees (according to the calendar year) with the tax agencies, submit the final settlement report of the previous year to the tax agencies before the last day of February of the current year and remit all charge and/or fee arrears into the State budget within 10 days after submitting their final settlement reports; if the charges and/or fees are remitted in excess, the excess amount shall be deducted from the payable charge and/or fee amount of the following period.

5. The charge and/or fee amounts remitted into the State budget shall be distributed among different budget levels in accordance with the provisions of the current Law on the State Budget.

Article 14.- Agencies and/or organizations allowed to collect charges and/or fees shall have the following tasks, powers and responsibilities:

1. To organize the collection of charges and/or fees in strict compliance with the provisions of law and publicize the law provisions on charges and/or fees at the charge and/or fee collecting places;

2. To notify the charge and/or fee payers of the payable charge and/or fee amounts and the payment time-limits; if any payers fail to pay charges and/or fees as prescribed by law, the collecting organizations and/or agencies shall have the right to refuse to provide services for such payers or meet their demands that correspond to charges and/or fees they have to pay; any payers who deliberately evade the charge and/or fee payment shall, besides having to fully pay the charge and/or fee amount as prescribed, be administratively sanctioned or handled according to law by competent bodies which the dossiers thereon are transferred to;

3. To register and declare charges and/or fees with the tax agencies in strict compliance with the stipulations of the Ministry of Finance;

4. To remit fully and on time charges, fees and fines into the State budget under guidance of the tax agencies;

5. To strictly abide by the regulations on accountancy, vouchers and invoices as prescribed by law; to supply documents, accounting books and reports, vouchers and invoices related to the management of charges and/or fees at the request of tax agencies and competent bodies.

Article 15.- In addition to their assigned tasks, powers and responsibilities defined in Article 14 of this Decree which are related to the collection of charges and/or fees, the tax agencies shall also have the following tasks, powers and responsibilities:

1. To guide and urge the charge- and fee- collecting agencies to declare, collect and remit charges and/or fees, provide accountancy documents and make final settlement of charges and/or fees in strict compliance with this Decree;

2. To notify the charge- and fee- collecting agencies of their payable amounts and the time-limits for the remittance thereof into the State budget according to regulations; past such time-limit, if a charge and/or fee collecting agency fails to remit the collected charge and/or fee amount, the tax agency shall issue another notice on the payable charge and/or fee amount as well as the fine amount on the late payment as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 19 of this Decree; if the charge- and fee- collecting agency still fails to fully pay the charge and/or fee amount together with the fine amount as already notified, the tax agency shall have the right to apply handling measures provided for in Clause 4, Article 19 of this Decree to ensure the full collection of charges, fees and fines; if after taking the above-said measures, the charge- and fee- collecting agency still fails to fully pay the charge, fee and fine amount, the dossier shall be handed over to the competent State agency for handling according to law;

3. To inspect and examine the declaration, collection, remittance, use and final settlement of charges and/or fees by the charge- and fee- collecting agencies to ensure their strict compliance with the provisions of law;

4. To handle administrative violations and settle complaints related to charges and/or fees according to their competence;

5. To request charge and/or fee payers and charge- and fee- collecting agencies to supply accounting books, vouchers and other documents related to the calculation and payment of charges and/or fees.

6. To keep and use data and documents supplied by charge and/or fee payers and charge- and fee- collecting agencies in accordance with the regulations.

Article 16.- The charge and fee payers’ rights and responsibilities in making complaints and/or denunciations about violations of the legislation on charges and fees are stipulated as follows:

1. Organizations and individuals paying charges and/or fees shall have the right to complain against and denounce charge and/or fee collectors or collecting agencies according to the law on complaints and denunciations about their violations of this Decree.

Pending the solution, the concerned charge and/or fee payers shall still have to comply with notices issued by the charge- and fee- collecting agencies.

2. Where a complainant or denunciator disagrees with decision of the agency settling his/her complaint or denunciation, or past the time-limit stipulated in Article 17 of this Decree, his/her complaint or denunciation has not been settled, he/she shall have the right to petition at the immediately higher-level agency of the charge- and fee- collecting agency according to the law on citizens’ complaints and denunciations or initiate a lawsuit at court as prescribed by law.

Article 17.- Responsibilities and powers of charge- and fee- collecting agencies in settling complaints:

1. After receiving a complaint about charges and/or fees, the concerned charge- and fee- collecting agency shall have to consider and settle it within 15 days; for complicated cases and matters, such time-limit may be prolonged but must not exceed 30 days; if the cases do not fall under its settling competence, it shall have to transfer the dossiers or report it to the competent agency for settlement and at the same time notify the complainant thereof within 10 days after receiving the complaint;

2. The charge- and fee- collecting agency that receives a complaint shall have the right to request the complainant to supply all dossiers and documents related to the complaint; if the complainant refuses to supply such dossiers and documents without plausible reasons, the charge- and fee- collecting agency shall be entitled to refuse to consider and settle such complaint;

3. The charge- and fee- collecting agency shall have to repay the wrongly collected charge, fee or fine amount to the charge and/or fee payer within 15 days after receiving a decision thereon from the competent agency as prescribed by law;

4. If detecting and concluding on any false declaration and evasion of charges and/or fees or any charge- or fee-related mistake, the collecting agency shall have to collect the charge and/or fee arrears or reimburse the mistakenly collected charge and/or fee amount, retrospectively for 5 years counting back from the date the false declaration, the evasion of charges and/or fees or the charge- and/or fee-related mistake is detected; as for cases where a charge- and/or fee- collecting agency has, in fact, collected charges and/or fees but failed to declare and remit them into the State budget, the time for the collection of charge, fee and fine arrears shall be counted from the time it started collecting charges and/or fees;

5. The head of the superior agency of a charge- and/or fee- collecting agency shall have to settle charge- and/or fee-related complaints against the latter.

Article 18.- Handling of violations by charge and/or fee payers

1. Organizations/or individuals failing to fully pay charges and/or fees as prescribed shall neither be provided with services for their work nor have their demands met as provided for by law for such services;

2. Organizations and/or individuals that deliberately evade charge and/or fee payment shall, besides having to fully pay charges and/or fees as prescribed by law, be subject to warning or a fine from one to three times the evaded charge and/or fee amount, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations; if evading charges and/or fees in large amounts or if having repeated an administratively sanctioned violation regarding charges and/or fees or committed another serious violation, they shall be examined for penal liability as prescribed by law.

The agencies competent to issue regulations on the collection of charges and/or fees shall define concrete level of sanction for each act of violation stipulated herein.

Article 19.- Handling of violations by charge- and/or fee- collecting agencies

A charge- and/or fee- collecting agency that violates the provisions of this Decree shall be dealt with as follows:

1. If it is detected having issued the regulation on charge and/or fee collection ultra vires or having collected charges and/or fees not according to the provisions of this Decree and relevant legal documents, the implementation of such regulation and such charge and/or fee shall be immediately suspended. The wrongly collected charge and/or fee amount shall be reimbursed to the payers; where the payers are unidentified, the collected charge and/or fee amount shall be fully remitted into the State budget (100% of which shall be distributed to the central budget); depending on the nature and seriousness of its violation, the concerned agency shall also be subject to administrative sanction or examination for penal liability as prescribed by law;

2. If it fails to comply with the regulations on the declaration, remittance to the State budget, final settlement of charges and/or fees, accounting regulations as well as regulations on the use and keeping of vouchers and invoices as prescribed in Articles 13 and 14 of this Decree, it shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation, be sanctioned in accordance with the regulations on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of taxation;

3. If it delays the remittance of the collected charge, fee and/or fine amount into the State budget, as compared to the prescribed time-limit or defined in the handling decision on charges and/or fees, it shall, besides having to fully remit the remittable charge, fee and fine amount, have to pay a fine equal to 0.1% (one thousandth) of the diferredly paid amount for each day of late remittance; the money deposited at banks, treasuries and/or credit institutions by the charge- and fee- collecting agency shall be deducted for the remittance of charges, fees and fines.

The concerned banks, treasuries and/or credit institutions shall have to deduct money from the deposit accounts of the charge- and fee- collecting agencies so as to remit the remittable charges, fees and fines into the State budget according to decision of the tax agency or the competent body before the debt recovery.

4. If it makes a false declaration and evades the remittance of charges and/or fees, it shall, besides having to remit the total sum of undeclared and evaded charges and/or fees into the State budget, be subject to a fine from one to three times the evaded charge and/or fee amount, depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation; acts of evading the remittance of charges and/or fees in large amounts or committing other serious violations shall be examined for penal liability as prescribed by law.

Article 20.- Handling of charge and/or fee collectors and other individuals who breach the regulations on the management of charges and fees

1. Charge and/or fee collectors, who, due to their irresponsibility or wrong settlement, cause damage to charge and/or fee payers shall have to compensate the latter therefor as prescribed by law, and shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, be disciplined or examined for penal liability as prescribed by law;

2. Charge and/or fee collectors and other individuals who abuse their positions and/or powers to illegally use the collected charge, fee and/or fine money or who deliberately ignore the collection of charges and/or fees, thus causing losses to the State, shall have to pay compensation for the State with the total charge, fee and/or fine amounts they have illegally used, appropriated or caused loss of according to law and, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, be disciplined or examined for penal liability as prescribed by law.

3. Charge and/or fee collectors and other individuals who abuse their positions and/or powers to act in complicity with or protect violators of legislation on charges and fees or to commit other acts of violating the provisions of this Decree shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations be disciplined or examined for penal liability as prescribed by law.

Article 21.- Competence to handle charge- and/or fee- related violations

1. The competence for handling charge- and/or fee- related administrative violations as defined in Article 18 of this Decree shall comply with the specific regulations on the collection of each kind of charge or fee, issued by the competent agency(ies);

2. The competence for handling charge- and/or fee- related administrative violations as defined in Article 19 of this Decree shall comply with the Decree on Sanctioning Administrative Violations in the field of taxation.

Article 22.- Charge and/or fee collecting agencies and collectors that well fulfill their tasks; organizations and/or individuals that detect acts of violation of this Decree shall be commended and/or rewarded according to the Government’s stipulations.

Article 23.- This Decree takes effect 15 days after its signing.

To annul Decision No. 276/CT of July 28, 1992 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now the Government) on the unified management of charges and fees and other regulations on charges and fees which are contrary to the provisions of this Decree.

Article 24.- The ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the agencies attached to the Government and the People’s Committees of different levels shall immediately direct the implementation of the following:

1. Inventorying and reviewing all kinds of charges and fees collected in the localities for the classification and handling thereof as follows:

a/ To immediately suspend the collection of charges and/or fees not set by the competent agencies specified in Article 8 of this Decree. Agencies and/or organizations collecting such charges and/or fees shall have to make final settlement and declaration of the collected amounts and fully remit them to the State budget under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance;

b/ For charges and/or fees already set by the right competent agencies prescribed in Article 8 of this Decree, their collection, remittance and use must be managed according to the provisions of this Decree.

2. Making suggestions and coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and the provincial People’s Committees in studying and elaborating regulations on the collection of charges and fees in their respective branches or localities;

3. The Ministry of Finance and the provincial People’s Committees shall promptly study, elaborate and submit to the competent agencies for promulgation or promulgate themselves according to their respective competence the regulations on the collection of charges and/or fees in strict compliance with the provisions of this Decree in 1999.

Article 25.- The Minister of Finance shall guide the implementation of this Decree, provide for the publicity of the regulations on charge and/or fee collection and coordinate with the social and political organizations in encouraging population to pay charges and/or fees and supervise charge and/or fee collectors.

Article 26.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government, and the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to organize the implementation of this Decree.

On behalf of the Government
For the Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
NGUYEN TAN DUNG