Penalties for Bringing Cash Exceeding the Prescribed Limit When Entering Vietnam

Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 2 of Circular 15/2011/TT-NHNN, individuals entering through international border gates of Vietnam with a passport carrying foreign currency in cash exceeding 5,000 USD or other foreign currencies of equivalent value must declare with Customs at the border gate.

Accordingly, the amount of foreign currency in cash carried by your friend exceeded the above limit without customs declaration and will be penalized as follows:

As the limit is 5,000 USD and your friend carried 500,000 USD, exceeding the limit by 495,000 USD, with the foreign exchange rate updated on June 26, 2020, at 23,000 VND = 1 USD, the value of 495,000 USD is equivalent to 11.3 billion VND.

Therefore, for the act of violating customs declaration upon entry with foreign currency in cash of such value, a penalty shall be imposed according to Point d, Clause 5, Article 9 of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP, as amended and supplemented under Clause 6, Article 1 of Decree 45/2016/ND-CP, with a fine ranging from 30,000,000 VND to 50,000,000 VND for the act of carrying foreign currency in cash exceeding the regulated amount of 100,000,000 VND without constituting a crime.

According to the above regulations, your friend has violated the customs declaration requirement by carrying foreign currency in cash into Vietnam. Therefore, he/she must pay the penalty as stipulated, and the foreign currency in cash will be returned once the penalty decision has been executed in accordance with Clause 6, Article 1 of Decree 45/2016/ND-CP.

You may pay the fine on behalf of your friend, but when doing so, please review the specific penalty decision of the competent authority.

Due to the current prevalence of fraudulent activities like this, you should exercise caution when paying the fine on behalf of someone else (avoid transferring funds).

The above is the content sent to you by the Editorial Board.

Respectfully!