Notable new policies of Vietnam effective from the end of August 2024

1. Vietnam’s standards for the award of titles of Advanced Laborer in Foreign Affairs from August 29, 2024

On July 15, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam promulgated Circular No. 01/2024/TT-BNG elaborating the Law on Emulation and Commendation in Authorities of Foreign Affairs.

According to Article 3 of Circular No. 01/2024/TT-BNG, the standards of the award of Advanced Laborer Titles in Foreign Affairs are as follows:

- Advanced Laborer Titles shall be annually awarded to individuals under the management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam satisfying the following standards: 

+ Complete tasks from good levels or above.

+ Comply with guidelines, policies, and regulations of the CPV and the State and regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam.  Have unity and mutual assistance; actively participate in emulation movements.

- Regarding individuals with brace actions of saving people or assets of the State or other people leading to injuries requiring treatment, the treatment time shall be considered for the assessment for the award of Advanced Laborer Titles. 

- Regarding individuals sent to training or advanced training for a year or more, the time of training or advanced training shall be considered for assessment for emulation titles.  Aside from the general standards, during training and advanced training, individuals shall comply with regulations of training and advanced training facilities, complete learning programs, and achieve learning results from good or better (regarding training and advanced training courses with learning outcome classification).

- Individuals sent to training or advanced training for under a year who comply with the regulations of training and advanced training facilities shall have their training time included in the working time at units for assessment for emulation titles.

- The maternity leave time prescribed by the law shall be considered working time at units for assessment for emulation titles.  

- Regarding individuals transferred, mobilized, or seconded to other agencies, organizations, or units for a specific period, the assessment for the award of Advanced Laborer Titles shall be decided by agencies, organizations, and units competent to assess and classify the completion level of tasks (regarding individuals who are officials or public employees) or new units (regarding individuals who are not officials or public employees). 

Where the working time at the old unit is 6 months or more, there must be feedback and assessment of the old agency or unit. 

2. Contents of agreements on provision of wholesale services in Vietnam from August 23, 2024 

On July 10, 2024, the Minister of Information and Communications of Vietnam promulgated Circular No. 08/2024/TT-BTTTT elaborating wholesale activities in telecommunications. 

According to Clause 2 Article 6 of Circular No. 08/2024/TT-BTTTT on contents of agreements on the provision of wholesale services include: 

- Requirements and principles of service provision; 

- Procedures for service provision; 

- Description of services to be provided, including technical properties (information on network configurations when necessary for effective use of network access rights);

- Quality standards of services, including at least disclosed service quality targets;

- Requirements for operations and technical matters that wholesale enterprises must comply with to prevent damage to the networks of wholesale enterprises; 

- Contents concerning telecommunications connections according to the regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam (in case of hiring networks); 

- Clauses on prices and procedures for controlling and paying service fees; 

- Forms of service fee payment; 

- Procedures in case of changes (addition or reduction) to services; 

- Solutions to assurance of the safety of infrastructures and information security; 

- Regulations on information confidentiality and privacy rights of data used during the provision and use of services; 

- Other rights and obligations of wholesale enterprises (if any); 

- Regulations on rights to terminate an agreement and compensate damage in case one of the two enterprises fail to comply with the commitments in the agreement; 

- Settlement of disputes, compensations, and complaints;

- Contact information. 

3. Vietnam to permit registration of e-tax transactions using level-2 e-identity accounts from August 28, 2024 

On July 9, 2024, the Minister of Finance of Vietnam promulgated Circular No. 46/2024/TT-BTC on amendments to Circular No. 19/2021/TT-BTC guiding e-transactions in taxation.

Circular No. 46/2024/TT-BTC added additional regulations on procedures for online registration and issuance of e-tax transaction accounts with tax authorities directly through the web portal of the General Department of Taxation of Vietnam. 

Specifically, regarding taxpayers who are individuals with registered and activated level-2 e-identity accounts according to Clause 2 Article 14, Clause 2 Article 15, and Article 18 of Decree No. 59/2022/ND-CP on electronic identification and authentication and the system of electronic identification and authentication and the web portal of the General Department of Taxation of Vietnam has been connected and operated: 

Taxpayers who are individuals may use e-identity accounts to replace the presentation of ID cards or passports/citizen ID cards/identity cards to continue the implementation of the procedures for online registration and issuance of e-tax transaction accounts with tax authorities following Point b.1 Clause 1 Article 10 of Circular No. 19/2021/TT-BTC dated March 18, 2021;

Requests for activation of e-transaction accounts for taxpayers who are individuals shall be sent through registered phone numbers or emails. 

4. Vietnam’s principles of developing state budget revenue estimates in 2025 

On July 16, 2024, the Minister of Finance of Vietnam promulgated Circular No. 49/2024/TT-BTC guiding the development of state budget estimates in 2025 and the 3-year plan for finance and state budget during 2025-2027, effective as of August 30, 2024. 

According to the Circular, the general principles when developing state budget revenue estimates in 2024 are as follows: 

- The state budget revenue estimates in 2025 shall be developed in compliance with the Law on Stage Budget 2015, the Law on Tax Administration 2019, Laws on tax, fees, and charges, other relevant legal documents, and Directive No. 17/CT-TTg 2024, ensuring proper and adequate collection of revenues of the state budget in conformity with the implementation of the previous years and the finest implementation of targets concerning the 5-year state budget revenues during 2021-2025. 

- The development of revenue estimates in 2025 shall follow the socio-economic and financial situations in Vietnam and abroad, calculate factors of increase, decrease, and shift in revenues due to changes to legal policies on revenues and revenue management, especially expired policies on exemption and reduction of tax, fees, and charges and deferral of tax and land levy payment and the implementation of reduction roadmaps and tax incentives to carry out commitments of the Government of Vietnam during international integration with foreign investors and regulations on prevention of erosion of tax base.

- The development of revenue estimates shall be associated with the drastic implementation of solutions to administrative reform and modernization of revenue management; intensify the management and prevention of revenue loss, especially tax loss prevention in trading and transfer of real estate; effectively manage new revenue sources generated from the development of digital economy and e-commerce; promote tax inspection, prevention of price transfer, tax evasion, and tax frauds,  drastic handling of tax debts, and strict control of tax refund. 

- Domestic revenue estimates, excluding land levy revenues, lottery revenues, revenues from sales of state capital at enterprises, dividends, profit after tax, and differences in the revenues and expenditures of the State Bank of Vietnam, will increase by a nationwide average of at least 5-7% by 2025 compared to the estimated evaluation in 2024 (factors of increase and decrease in revenues due to changes to policies have been excluded); the revenue growth in each province conforms with the economic growth and revenue sources generated at each area, including factors of intensification of revenue management, revenue loss prevention, and tax debt collection. 

Revenue estimates from export and import activities will increase by an average of 4-6% by 2025 compared to the estimated evaluation in 2024. 

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