Vietnam News Brief: Work Permits, Enterprise Registration, and Competition Cases

December 30, 2016 Posted by Vietnam Briefing Reading Time: 5 minutes

New Guidelines in Effect for Issuing Work Permits

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) issued Circular No. 40/2016/TTBLDTBXH providing guidance on implementation of Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP, effective December 12, for work permits issued to foreign workers in Vietnam. The key change is the transfer of authorization from The Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA) to MOLISA for certain types of enterprises. MOLISA will be responsible for approving proposals for using foreign laborers, identifying unlicensed foreign workers, reusing and revoking work licenses and deportation of unlicensed foreign laborers.

The organizations under the authority of MOLISA are state agencies, business associations established based on legal regulations, foreign non-governmental organizations, foreign entities in Vietnam, operational offices of international organizations in Vietnam and projects with foreign investment. Public organizations functioning under the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, organizations established by the government and the Prime Minister, also fall under the scope of MOLISA. DOLISA will still be the authority for approving demand for foreign laborers from contractors. Employers are therefore required to inform either MOLISA or the Chairman of the Provisional People’s Committee 30 days prior to hiring foreign laborers or if there is a change in demand for such workers.

New Regulations for Enterprise Registration

The Ministry of Finance issued a Circular effective January 1, 2017 regulating the amount, method of collection, managing and using the fees for providing business information and registration of enterprises for organizations and individuals. For enterprise registration, the fees for a new registration or reissuance of a registration certificate or the change of contents of previous registration certificate will cost US$8.78 (VND 200,000). New issuance and amendments to the certificate of operation registration for representative’s offices and branches will be US$4.39 (VND 100,000). The Investment Registration Agency is the responsible agency for collecting fees for the enterprise registrations and must submit 100 percent of the collected amount to the state budget.

For providing business information on business registration certificates or certificate of operation for representative offices and branches, the fee is US$0.88 (VND 20,000) while providing information about the registration files or financial statements will cost US$1.76 (VND 40,000). Information about the business’s registration dossier and general reports will incur a cost of US$6.59 (VND 150,000) while seeking information on the enterprise registration contents is set at US$13.18 (VND 300,000). The stipulated fee for information as per registered accounts for at least 125 documents per month is US$219.60 (VND 5,000,000). The Department of Planning and Investment will be responsible for collection of such fees. The Business Registration Supporting Center under the Agency for Business Registration, which performs business registration support to organizations and individuals nationwide, has the authority to collect 85 percent of the collected fees for providing information about enterprises with the remaining amount allocated to the state budget. Businesses changing information due to changes in administrative locations, registering for dissolution of the entity, termination of operations of representative offices and branches, online registration and any requests by state agencies are exempted from the aforementioned fees.

New Fee Structure on Competition Cases

The Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 251/2016/TT-BTC, effective January 1, 2017 on regulating the amount, mode of collection, management, and use of fees for the handling of competition cases for organizations and individuals. The Vietnam Competition Authority, which falls under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, will be responsible for the collection and management of the charges and all charges will be on a case-by-case basis.

The charge for an act of unfair competition will be US$439.20 (VND 10,000,000) while acts for restricting competition will be US$4,392 (VND 100,000,000). Fees for handling independent claims of persons having rights and obligations is US$439.20 (VND 10,000,000) while the charge for the dossier assessment for solving a competition case shall be US$2,196 (VND50,000,000) per application.

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