What are the fines for a notary office that does not affix a seal on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam?

What are purposes of seals on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam?

The affixing of seals on adjoining edges of pages is intended to ensure the authenticity of each page in a document and to prevent any alteration or discrepancies in the content.

Additionally, the affixing of seals on adjoining edges of pages aims to ensure the objectivity of the document and prevent its substitution or manipulation of the previously established results.

Currently, the requirement for seals on adjoining edges of pages is determined by the Minister, the Head of the specific management agency. According to the guidelines of Official Dispatch 6550/TCHQ-VP in 2012, the documents issued by the customs authorities that must be affixed with seals on adjoining edges of pages include:

- Decisions on handling complaints.

- Decisions on administrative penalties.

- Inspection decisions, examination decisions.

- Decisions on tax exemption for imported and exported goods.

- Decisions on tax determination.

- Decisions on post-clearance inspections.

- Decisions on sending officials on foreign missions (for official passport purposes).

- Notifications of complaint resolution, denunciations.

- Notifications of late payment penalties.

- Inspection, audit conclusions.

- Verification conclusions of denunciations.

- Reports on the results of denunciation verification.

- Meeting minutes.

- Contracts, contract appendices, contract liquidation.

- Forms, appendices with content related to financial data, tax accounting, import-export statistics.

What are the fines for a notary office that does not affix a seal on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam? - image from internet

What are the fines for a notary office that does not affix a seal on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam?

Based on Clause 1 Article 16 of Decree 82/2020/ND-CP, the fines for a notary office that does not affix a seal on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam are as follows:

Violation of regulations on the activities of notary public offices:

1. A fine ranging from 3,000,000 VND to 7,000,000 VND shall be imposed for one of the following acts:

a) Failure to post or incomplete posting of working hours, notary procedures, rules for receiving notarization requests, notary fees, notary remuneration, and other expenses, as well as the list of collaborating interpreters at the office of the notary public organization.

b) Failure to publish the registered activity content within the prescribed period, or incomplete content, or failure to comply with the prescribed number of publications.

c) Failure to comply with or incomplete reporting procedures, or inaccurate reporting on the organization and activities of the notary public organization.

d) Improperly keeping, managing, or using notary registers or using forms that do not comply with regulations.

dd) Improperly storing notarization records.

e) Using signage that does not conform to the prescribed model or displaying content that does not match the registered activity certificate.

g) Assigning notaries to supervise trainees in a manner that does not comply with regulations.

h) Refusing to accept trainees designated by the Department of Justice without a valid reason.

i) Refusing to accept the storage of wills without a valid reason.

k) Failing to maintain compliance with the conditions for the registered office of the notary public organization as prescribed.

l) Not affixing the seal of the notary public organization on notarized documents that have been signed by the notary or not affixing seals on adjoining edges of pages for notarized documents consisting of two or more pages.

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In addition, based on Article 4 of Decree 82/2020/ND-CP, the level of fines for administrative violations is as follows:

Provisions on the level of fines, the authority to impose fines on individuals, organizations:

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4. The fine levels specified in Chapters II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII of this Decree shall apply to administrative violations committed by individuals, except for the provisions in Clause 5 of this Article. In case an organization commits administrative violations similar to those committed by individuals, the fine level shall be twice the fine level imposed on individuals.

5. The fine levels specified in Articles 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 24, 26, 29, 33, 39, 50, 53, 63, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 80 of this Decree are the fine levels for administrative violations committed by organizations.

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Therefore, notary offices that do not affix seals on adjoining edges of pages for notarized documents consisting of two or more pages will be penalized with fines ranging from 3,000,000 VND to 7,000,000 VND.

Note that the above-mentioned fine levels apply to administrative violations committed by organizations.

What are regulations on seals on adjoining edges of pages in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 33 of the Decree 30/2020/ND-CP stipulating use of seals and security key storage equipment as follows:

Use of seals and security key storage equipment

1. Using seals

a) When embossing the seal imprint, the imprint must be clear, neat, in the right direction and in red ink according to the regulations in force.

b) When chopping a seal across a signature, the seal imprint must overlap about 1/3 of the signature to the left.

c) With respect to documents annexed to the main text or appendices, the seal imprint is embossed on the top page and overlap a part of the entity's name or the title of an appendix.

d) Chopping seals at the upper left corner, chopping seals spanning all pages and embossing raised seals on paper documents shall be subject to the decision of the entity’s head.

dd) A seal on adjoining edges of pages is chopped in the midst of the right edges of pages of a document or appendix, partially spanning pages; each seal of this kind is chopped on 05 pages at maximum.

2. Use of security key storage equipment

The entity’s security key storage equipment may be used for digitally signing electronic documents that the entity issues, and electronic copies made from paper documents.

As regulations above, a seal on adjoining edges of pages is chopped in the midst of the right edges of pages of a document or appendix, partially spanning pages; each seal of this kind is chopped on 05 pages at maximum.

Best regards!