Vietnam: Payment of rents for lodgings in work-trip destinations

1. Rules for payment of rents for lodgings in work-trip destinations:

- For high-ranking leaders, state current regulations shall apply;

- Officials, public employees and contractual employees who are sent by their agencies or units to work trips and must rent lodgings in work-trip destinations are entitled to payment of such lodging rents by adopting any of two following methods: payment of fixed allowance or invoice-based payment;

- Persons on work trips to agencies or units that have arranged free lodgings are not entitled to payment of lodging rents.

If requesting and receiving payment of lodging rents, they shall refund the rents to their agencies or units and be disciplined in accordance with laws on officials, public employees and contractual employees.

2. Payment of fixed allowance:

- Holders of ministerial, deputy ministerial and leading titles who enjoy a post-based allowance coefficient of 1.25 or higher are entitled to a fixed lodging rent of VND 1,000,000/day/person, regardless of work-trip destinations;

- For other officials, public employees and contractual employees:

+ For work trips to urban districts or urban centers of central-affiliated cities and provincial grade-I urban centers, the fixed allowance is VND 450,000/day/person.

+ For work trips to rural districts or towns of central-affiliated cities and other provincial towns or cities, the fixed allowance is VND 350,000/day/person.

+ For work trips to other areas, the fixed allowance is VND 300,000/day/person.

3. Invoice-based payment:

Persons on work trips who refuse to receive payment of fixed lodging allowance under Clause 2 Article 7 Circular No. 40/2017/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam of may receive payment based on actual lodging rents (accompanied with lawful invoices) as approved by heads of their agencies or units. To be specific:

- Holders of ministerial and equivalent leading titles are entitled to the lodging rent of VND 2,500,000/day/room with one person per room, regardless of work-trip destinations;

- For work trips to urban districts or urban centers of central-affiliated cities and provincial grade-I urban centers:

+ Holders of deputy ministerial and leading titles who enjoy a post-based allowance coefficient of between 1.25 and 1.3 are entitled to the lodging rent of VND 1,200,000/day/room with one person per room.

+ Other officials, public employees and contractual employees are entitled to the lodging rent of VND 1,000,000/day/room with 2 persons per room.

- For work trips to other areas:

+ Holders of deputy ministerial and leading titles who enjoy a post-based allowance coefficient of between 1.25 and 1.3 are entitled to the lodging rent of VND 1,100,000/day/room with one person per room.

+ Other officials, public employees and contractual employees are entitled to the lodging rent of VND 700,000/day/room with 2 persons per room.

- A person who is entitled to lodging room with 2 persons per room but goes on a work trip alone or odd persons or odd persons of different sexes in a delegation may rent a separate room at the actual rent rate not exceeding the rent applicable to other persons in the delegation (with 2 persons/room);

- A person who is entitled to lodging room with 2 persons per room but goes on a work trip in the same delegation with holders of leading titles who are entitled to hotel room with 1 person per room may receive payments based on actual rents of standard rooms in hotels in which such holders of leading titles stay with 2 persons/room;

- Payment levels of lodging rents specified in this Clause include taxes and fees (if any) under effective regulations of law.

4. Persons on work trips who have to complete their tasks until the day-end or who can buy airfares, train or car tickets only from 18:00 hours to 24:00 hours of the same day may receive payment for an additional half-a-day rent (applicable to both payment of fixed lodging allowance or invoice-based payment methods) not exceeding 50% of the relevant level of fixed lodging rent. They may not receive fixed lodging rent for staying overnight on train, boat, ship, airplane, car or other means of transport.

Circular No. 40/2017/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam was issued on April 28, 2017 and effective from July 01, 2017.

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