Vietnam: Payment of travel expenses for persons on work trips

1. Invoice-based payment:

- Persons on work trips may receive payments of travel expenses, including:

+ Expense for travel from their homes or offices to airports, railway stations or coach stations and vice versa; airfares, train tickets or tickets of mass transit vehicles from their agencies to work-trip destinations and vice versa.

+ Expense for travel within localities of work-trip destinations, such as from lodgings to workplaces, from airports, railway stations or coach stations to lodgings and vice versa.

+ Charges for transport by road, waterway or seaway for themselves and vehicles.

+ Charges for carrying materials, equipment, devices and/or tools (if any) directly serving work trips paid by persons on work trips.

+ Charges for transporting their baggage by airplane in case such baggage charges are not included in airfares.

In case sending and receiving agencies or units have arranged vehicles for officials, public employees or contractual employees, they will not have such expenses paid.

- Based on agencies' or units' internal spending regulations, the nature of work trips and allocated funds, heads of agencies or units shall approve officials’ or public employees' or contractual employees’ request for travel by air, train, car or public transport vehicles or other means of transport, ensuring thrift and efficiency.

- Regulations on airfares for persons on domestic work trips:

+ For high-ranking leaders (holding titles higher than ministerial level or equivalent), state current regulations shall apply.

+ Business-class or class-C airfares are applicable to leading officials who enjoy salaries for leadership posts or enjoy leadership post-based allowances under the National Assembly Standing Committee's Resolution No. 730/2004/NQ-UBTVQH, the Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat's Decision No. 128-QD-TW or the Government's Decree No. 204/2004/ND-CP, consisting of: ministers and equivalent; deputy ministers and leading officials who enjoy post-based allowance coefficient of 1.3 or higher; deputy heads of central socio-political organizations; and the Standing Secretary of the central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union.

+ Economy-class airfares are applicable to persons holding other titles.

- For regions in which vehicles of mass transit dealers are unavailable and persons on work trips have to hire other vehicles, heads of their agencies or units shall decide to approve payment of vehicle rents based on vehicle rent contracts or receipts of vehicle owners (taking into account freights of other vehicles at the same time in these regions);

- Levels of payment are based on prices indicated in tickets, ticketing invoices or receipts as regulated by law, or receipts of vehicle owners. The ticket price is exclusive of other service charges like those for sightseeing or special services on request.

In case the airfare does not cover baggage charge, the person on a work trip may have baggage charge paid according to the baggage charge rate of departing flight provided that the weight of baggage for which charge is paid shall not exceed the maximum weight of baggage transported free of charge of other normal types of air tickets (airfare includes baggage charge).

2. Provision of fixed travel allowance:

- For leading officials who are entitled to use cars on work trips under regulations by the Prime Minister and voluntarily register for provision of fixed travel allowance: The fixed travel allowance shall be paid under regulations in Circular No. 159/2015/TT-BTC;

- Officials or public employees who are not eligible to be arranged cars and who go on work trips on their own cars to localities 10 km or more (in communes facing social - economic difficulties or extreme social - economic difficulties under the Prime Minister's Decisions) or 15 km or more (in other communes) away from their working offices are entitled to provision of fixed travel allowance as 0.2 liter of petrol per kilometer based on distance between administrative divisions and the petrol price at time when they are sent on work trip, which must be included in the units' internal spending regulations.

View relevant provisions at: Circular No. 40/2017/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam takes effect from July 01, 2017.

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