New policies to take effect since June

Conditions for purchasing social housing

The Government on April 22, 2013 issued Decree 34/2013/ND-CP to detail conditions for those eligible for purchasing and renting State-owned houses.

Accordingly, the eligible include (1) people with merits; (2) public officials and civil servants working for administrative offices, business units, Party and union organizations; (3) armed force officers and soldiers; (4) workers working at industrial parks, complexes, production and service sites; (5) low-income people, poor households in urban areas; (6) disabled people, lonely older people, (7) people who return public houses; and (8) households and individuals who have to resettle, but yet have land allocated or resettlement houses.  

Minimum capital volume for establishing an air carrier

The Government’s Decree No. 30/2013/ND-CP on air transport business and general air operation stipulates that the minimum capital volume for establishing an air carrier shall be from VND 300-1,300 billion.

Subsidies for people worshipping martyrs

PM Nguyen Tan Dung on April 9 signed Decree No. 31/2013/ND-CP to guided detailed implementation of some of articles of the revised Ordinance on preferential treatment of people with meritorious services to the Revolution.

Under the Decree, people worshipping martyrs whose next of kin are all dead shall be subjected to yearly subsidies worth US$25.

Other decrees include:

- Decree No. 29/2013/ND-CP on amending and supplementing some articles of the Decree No. 92/2009/ND-CP dated on October 22, 2009 on titles, numbers, entitlements and policies for cadres and civil servants in communes, wards, townships, and part-time cardes at commune level;

- Decree 32/2013/ND-CP on detailed implementation of some of articles of the Cryptography Law.

- Decree No. 47/2013/ND-CP dated May 13, 2013 of the Government amending and supplementing some Articles of the Decree No. 82/2011/ND-CP dated September 16, 2011 of the Government on execution by lethal injection

- Decree No. 41/2013/ND-CP guiding the implementation of article 20 of the Labor Code on the list of units in which strikes are prohibited and settlement of requests of labor collectives in those units.

Strikes are banned in six sectors: power generation, transmission and regulation; exploration, exploitation of oil and gas, production and supply of gas; maritime and aviation safety; telecommunication infrastructure, postal services; water supply; and sectors serving national security.

Increase of import tax on used cars

The import tax for used car from nine seats, including the driver, will be increased since June 20, this year, according to PM Nguyen Tan Dung’s recent Decision 24/2013/QD-TTg.

Accordingly, for car less than 1,000 cc, the tax rate will be US$5,000 while car from 1,000 cc to 1,500 cc will be subjected to the tax rate of US$10,000.

The current tax categories are US$4,200 and US$9,600, respectively, according to the Ministry of Finance’s Circular 28/2013/TT-BTC which took effect since April 29, 2013.

Preferential loans for social housing purchase

The interest rate for loans to assist low-income people to purchase social housing will be fixed at 6% in 2013, according to the State Bank of Viet Nam’s recent Circular No. 11/2013/TT-NHNN which was promulgated in accordance with the Government’s Resolution No.  02/NQ-CP.

The total value of the preferential loans is around VND 30 trillion and the disbursement will be carried out within 36 months since June 1, 2013.

Fees for livestock breeding

The Ministry of Finance on April 4, 2013 promulgated Circular 37/2013/TT-BTC on the collection level, the regime of collection, remittance, management and use of charges, fees in the breeding.

Under the Circular, fee for issuing livestock breed import-export certificates will be VND 120,000 (about US$6) per request./.

                                                                                                               By Huong Giang