Recently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment issued the Draft Decree on the Government’s incentives for businesses suffering from the consequence of the corona virus pandemic. It is aimed that by the end of 2021, at least 01 million businesses will have access to favorable credit policies, reduction or termination of payment of tax, land fees as well as electricity, water, telecommunication charges. The Draft Decree is pending the Prime Minister’s approval.
Under the Draft Decree, there are four key groups of tasks for government agencies.
Group 1: Implement flexible and effective measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic, creating conditions for enterprises to stabilize and maintain production and business activities.
Group 2: Ensure stable production, smooth and efficient circulation of goods, overcome supply chain disruptions
_ Apply fast-track customs clearance for aid or donation from abroad for the healthcare sector to deal with the pandemic
_ Allow enterprises to submit scanned copies certified by digital signatures for documents that must be submitted as originals in the form of paper/notarized/certified original to resolve bottlenecks of customs clearance of goods
Group 3: Support to cut costs, remove difficulties in cash flow for businesses
_ Propose policies suspending or reducing the social insurance premiums in 2021 for businesses until June 2022.
_ Develop a plan to support air transport enterprises, and report to the Prime Minister in September 2021.
– Requesting shipping companies to publicly and transparently list shipping rates to eliminate unreasonable increase in freight rates that lead to cost burden for enterprises
_ Reduce of electricity prices for goods warehouses of logistics and processing enterprises in the agriculture, forestry, fishery and a number of commodity industries with export turnover of over USD 1 billion USD. Continue to reduce electricity prices for tourist accommodation establishments.
– Expeditiously implement the issued policies on relaxation and reduction of taxes, fees, charges and land rents; implement preferential tax policies for imported goods to finance COVID-19 prevention and control after being approved by the Government.
– Extend the deadline for paying excise tax on automobiles manufactured or assembled in Vietnam. Continue to reduce registration fees for domestically manufactured or assembled cars for an additional period of time in line with the COVID-19 pandemic.
_ Research to allow travel businesses to temporarily withdraw deposits for domestic and international travel and tourism services; reduce deposit withdrawal settlement time from 60 days to 30 days; continue to extend the reduction of the license fee for travel service business and issue tourist guide cards until the end of 2021.
_ Continue to administer monetary policy to control inflation, contributing to stabilizing the macro-economy; encourage credit institutions to continue reducing lending interest rates for existing loans and new loans to support production and business.
_ Supplement policies on debt rescheduling, exemption and reduction of interest and fees, keeping the same debt group for customers affected by the Covid-19 epidemic
_ Research and consider the exemption of trade union fees for members of businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022
Group 4: Regarding labor issues, experts
_ Propose policies to flexibly apply and relax regulations and conditions on the grant and extension of work permits for foreign experts working in Vietnam
_ Adjust regulations on tax finalization and bad debt and for borrowing capital to pay wages to employees when restoring production and business.
This is the second Draft Decree issued by the Ministry of Planning and Investment upon collection and investigation of opinions from Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh and opinions of 15 ministries. As such, it has reflected the current situations as well as takes into consideration the cities’ and provinces’ proposals. The Vietnam Government has continuously proved that it accompanies the business community to immediately implementing measures to remove difficulties and bottlenecks in production and business with the motto “soonest – most effective” in order to minimize damage and negative impacts on the business sector.
For more information on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the author Dr. Oliver Massmann under omassmann@duanemorris.com. Dr. Oliver Massmann is the General Director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC, Member to the Supervisory Board of PetroVietnam Insurance JSC and the only foreign lawyer presenting in Vietnamese language to members of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF VIETNAM.