Principles of account registration and use at the Vietnam State Treasury

Principles of account registration and use at the Vietnam State Treasury (Image from the Internet)

Principles of account registration and use at the Vietnam State Treasury are prescribed in Article 3 of Circular 18/2020/TT-BTC as follows:

- An applicant may register and use an account at VST in the administrative division where it is headquartered.

- In a case where the applicant wishes to register and use an account at VST in a place other than the administrative division where it is headquartered, it must gain such a written approval of the superior VST. In specific: If the applicant is headquartered in a district other than the district where the VST it wishes to make transactions with is based, it must seek advisory opinion of provincial VST; if the applicant is headquartered in a province other than the province where the VST it wishes to make transactions with is based, it must seek advisory opinion of central VST. In a case where it has made transactions with another VST, it must obtain a document certifying that the mentioned account has been closed except for a checking account of state budget.

- Regarding accounts related to disbursement of investment capital, deposit accounts of project management boards, subject to regulations on decentralization of control of disbursement of investment capital of provincial VST (projects under control of VST of provinces or districts), VST shall guide investors and project management boards to register and use accounts at local VST properly to guarantee that transactions are made in an efficient manner.

- Prime contractors, subcontractors may register and use deposit accounts at VST units to receive payments of units and project management boards at the request of competent authorities.

- When an applicant registers an account at VST, it is required to fill out an application for registration of account and specimen seal and signatures; all information required in the form must be completely filled; the account holder shall bear its seal and signature in the application and then send it to the VST where the account is registered. All information in the application for registration of account and specimen seal and signatures which are registered with the VST shall be valid from the date on which they are accepted until the said registrant re-register the specimen seal or specimen signature, close the corresponding account, or stop transactions at the VST.

- All signatures (first signature, second signature) must be borne in every document copy. The signature in accounting vouchers of a person must be consistent with and resemble the signature which was priorly registered with the VST. The seal of the registrant in documents must be consistent with the valid seal which was priorly registered with the VST.

Before using digital signatures to conduct electronic transactions with the VST, the registrant must notify the digital signatures of the relevant individuals of the transaction units participating in electronic transactions with the VST. Digital signatures of individuals participating in electronic transactions with the VST must be associated with their corresponding titles and for each specific type of transaction.

A digital signature, which is notified to sign the title of the account holder or an authorized person (the first signature), or the chief accountant, accountant or authorized person (the second signature) on the fund transfer documents via the public service page of the VST, must be the corresponding digital signature of the person who has been approved to sign by the VST, whether the first or second signature, in the application for opening and using accounts of the applicant.

The number of digital signatures for the first and second signatures must not exceed the number of people signing the corresponding signatures specified in Article 8 of this Circular.

- When freezing or closing an account, the relevant registrant and the VST must collate figures and confirm balances till the date of collation. The account balance shall be handled and transferred to other places in compliance with a specific request, if permitted by law, of that registrant or a request of competent authority.

- Account registrants at the VST (including commune-level People's Committees) are responsible for comparing and sending confirmation of account balances to the VST monthly, quarterly and annually depending on each account type or upon irregular request according to the prescribed form.

- Principles for determining entities eligible or ineligible for deposit interest payment, obliged or not obliged to pay service fees shall comply with Clauses 2 and 3, Article 11 of the Decree No. 24/2016/ND-CP dated April 5, 2016 of the Government stipulating the regime of state fund management.

- The service fees shall be collected according to the following principles:

+ The VST will not refund the collected service fee in a case where the registrant requests to cancel such a service or the service cannot be performed because of errors or incidents not due to errors of the VST.

+ The VST does not collect service fees for direct payments between the registrants and the VST (deducting accounts to pay service fees, paying for the purchase of treasury printed papers, etc.), between the registrants and other units that register and use accounts at the same VST.

+ The VST may not arbitrarily deduct amounts in the registrant’s balance collect service fees.

Best Regards!