Non-reimbursable items of expenditure on performing the tasks of protecting Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad

Non-reimbursable items of expenditure on performing the tasks of protecting Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

1. Non-reimbursable items of expenditure on performing the tasks of protecting Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad

According to Clause 1, Article 2 of Circular 110/2021/TT-BTC, non-reimbursable items of expenditure on performing the tasks of protecting Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad include:

- Cost items paid for activities directly involved in performing the tasks of protecting overseas Vietnamese citizens and legal persons that Vietnamese representative missions abroad undertake, including:

+ Travel expenses paid to officers of Vietnamese representative missions abroad when they are on the missions to protect Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad;

Expenses paid for consular visitations to learn about situations in which citizens are arrested, detained, remain in custody, tried, sentenced or put in jail, including fares of travel by air, road, rail or water, fuel and mission subsistence allowance paid under the provisions of the Circular 07/2020/TT-BTC.

+ Communication bills and postage paid for sending citizen protection documents; expenses for inviting governmental authorities or organizations of host countries for meals or offering them gifts in order to facilitate the protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad in accordance with Circular 07/2020/TT-BTC.

- Cost items paid for supporting cases of citizens in extremely difficult situations, suffering from serious diseases, and financial support for repatriating citizens who are victims of human trafficking crimes to Vietnam:

+ Expenses paid to give support to citizens in extremely difficult situations that they and their families do not have the financial ability to deal with at their own expense, including: Costs of travel in the host countries;

Costs of meals, temporary accommodations and other supplies or essential goods according to evidencing documents or vouchers showing actual costs, which must be paid in an economical and effective manner.

Under the guidance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heads of Vietnamese representative missions abroad shall determine cases of citizens in extremely difficult situations and decide on the levels of support given under their competence as specified at point a of clause 1 of Article 4 of Circular 110/2021/TT-BTC, and bear responsibility for their decision.

+ As regards citizens that suffer from fatal diseases (shown on the list of fatal diseases according to current regulations of Vietnamese law); die; are involved in serious accidents threatening their lives, to the extent that they themselves and their families do not have the financial ability to mitigate such situations;

Or those facing serious risk that need to be protected (e.g. war, natural disaster, disease, terrorism), in addition to the costs and expenses mentioned in the first paragraph of point b of clause 1 of Article 2 of Circular 110/2021/TT-BTC, if they need financial support to pay for costs of means of transportation to return Vietnam and other associated expenses, overseas Vietnamese representative missions shall request local units in Vietnam assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to perform the tasks of protecting Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad to report to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to seek his decision on an case by case basis, and incur responsibility for the decisions that they can make.

+ Expenses paid as financial support given to victims waiting for actions that  overseas Vietnamese representative missions can take to repatriate them to Vietnam: These expenses shall be subject to regulations laid down in Article 5 of the Circular 84/2019/TT-BTC.

2. Costs and expenses paid in advance that citizens must reimburse in Vietnam

Costs of purchase of tickets for travel to Vietnam; medical security expenses (including hospital fees and other expenses related to medical security activities), temporary residence expenses and other expenses paid to citizens in the following cases:

- Interested citizens need to have access to security deposits or guarantee provided by their families, relatives, domestic organizations, ship owners sending fishermen or workers abroad, and receive confirmation in writing by competent authorities.

- In extreme emergency cases, if an interested citizen does not get any security deposit or guarantee from his/her family, relative, a domestic organization or a ship owner sending fishermen or worker abroad, he/she is obliged to undertake to refund costs and expenses paid in advance to local units in Vietnam assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out the missions to protect Vietnamese citizens and legal persons abroad.

Heads of overseas Vietnamese representative missions shall, under the guidance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, consider and decide on advance payments in specific extreme emergency cases.

An overseas Vietnamese representative mission may only make an advance payment after the interested citizen has provided the security deposit, guarantee or commitment specified in clause 2 of this Article.

(Clause 2, Article 2 of Circular 110/2021/TT-BTC)

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