AMENDMENTS TO GOVERNMENT'S DECREE NO. 120/2016/ND-CP DATED AUGUST 23, 2016 ELABORATING LAW ON FEES AND CHARGES

1. Article 1 is amended as follows:

This Decree deals with declaration, collection and payment of fees and charges; management, use, and statement of fees; responsibilities of regulatory authorities and organizations for collection, transfer, management and use of fees and charges.”.

2. Heading and Clauses 1, 2 and 3 Article 3 are amended as follows:

1. Payers shall carry out declaration and payment of fees/charges on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, or when they arise; pay fees/charges to collectors or State Treasury either in cash, or via credit institutions or payment service providers, or adopting other methods as prescribed by law. Depending on the nature and characteristics of each type of fees/charges, competent authorities mentioned in Clause 2 Article 4 of the Law on fees and charges shall stipulate appropriate payment methods and fee/charge declaration and payment periods.

2. Collectors shall declare and transfer collected fees/charges according to the following provisions:

a) On a daily, weekly or monthly basis, fee collectors shall transfer collected fees to accounts on fees to be paid to State Treasury; charge collectors shall transfer collected charges to accounts on charges to be paid to state budget or accounts on payments to state budget opened at State Treasury. Based on the amount of collected fees and the distance from the collection place to the State Treasury, competent authorities mentioned in Clause 2 Article 4 of the Law on fees and charges shall set down specific daily, weekly or monthly periods as the basis for fee collectors to transfer collected fees to accounts on fees to be paid to State Treasury, and for charge collectors to transfer collected charges to accounts on charges to be paid to state budget or accounts on payments to state budget opened at State Treasury.

b) Fee collectors shall declare and transfer collected fees to state budget on a monthly basis, and make statement of collected fees on an annual basis, and charge collectors shall declare and transfer collected charges to state budget on a monthly basis as prescribed in the Law on tax administration, the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020, and the Government’s Decree No. 91/2022/ND-CP dated October 30, 2022.

c) Collectors of customs fees, and charges on goods, luggage and transiting vehicles; overseas Vietnamese missions authorized to collect fees/charges shall declare, collect and transfer fees/charges in accordance with the Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP.

3. Fee/charge collectors shall prepare and issue fee/charge receipts in accordance with the Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020, and the Decree No. 11/2020/ND-CP dated January 20, 2020.”.

3. Clause 1 and Clause 3 Article 4 are amended as follows:

“1. Fees from public services provided by regulatory authorities shall be paid to state budget. In case a regulatory authority uses collected fees to cover its operating expenses as prescribed, the amount of collected fees retained shall be determined according to Article 5 of this Decree, and the remaining amount (if any) shall be paid to state budget.

Regulatory authorities that are allowed to retain predetermined amounts of collected fees for covering their operating expenses:

a) Regulatory authorities following the financial mechanism specified in the Government’s Decree No. 130/2005/ND-CP dated October 17, 2005, the Government’s Decree No. 117/2013/ND-CP dated October 07, 2013, and regulatory authorities following specific income and financial mechanism adopted by the Government or the Prime Minister of Vietnam.

b) Overseas Vietnamese missions.

c) Police or national defense forces that are tasked with providing services and collecting fees to serve the state management tasks in accordance with regulations of the Law on fees and charges”.

“3. A part or whole of fees collected from services provided by service providers as assigned by competent authorities may be retained to cover their expenses incurred during service provision and fee collection according to the percentage referred to in Article 5 hereof; the remaining amount (if any) shall be paid to state budget. The amount of fees retained shall be considered as the collector’s revenue.”.

4. Clause 2, Clause 3, Clause 4 and Clause 5 Article 5 are amended as follows:

“2. The amount of fees retained by the collector as prescribed in Clause 1 and Clause 2 Article 4 of this Decree shall be used to cover its expenses incurred during service provision and fee collection according to its cost estimate approved by a competent authority, including:

a) Expenditures on implementing the autonomy (for regulatory authorities) or recurrent expenditures (for public service providers):

- Payments made to individuals performing tasks, providing services and collecting fees: salary, allowances and compulsory salary-based contributions (except for salaries of officials and public employees whose salaries are paid using funding derived from state budget in accordance with applicable regulations).

- Expenditures on activities in service of performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection such as: office stationeries, materials, means of communication, electricity, water, and allowances for business trips in compliance with applicable standards and levels.

- Expenditures on current repair of assets, machinery and equipment directly serving the performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection.

- Expenditures on purchase of materials relating to the performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection.

- Other expenditures relating to the performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection.

b) Expenditures not for implementing the autonomy (for regulatory authorities) or non-recurrent expenditures (for public service providers):

- Expenditures on acquisition and major repair of assets, machinery and equipment serving the performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection.

- Other non-recurrent expenditures relating to the performance of tasks, service provision and fee collection.

3. Apart from expenditures mentioned in Clause 2 of this Article, collectors that are regulatory authorities or public service providers following specific income and financial mechanism adopted by the Government or the Prime Minister of Vietnam shall use amount of fees retained in accordance with the Government or the Prime Minister’s regulations until the salary reform under the Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW dated May 21, 2018 of the 7^th Meeting of the 12^th Central Executive Committee is implemented.

4. Regarding amounts of fees retained by collectors to cover their expenses as prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article:  regulatory authorities shall comply with the Government’s Decree No. 130/2005/ND-CP, Decree No. 117/2013/ND-CP, and other Government’s Decrees on management and use of state budget for performing national defense, security and external relation tasks; public service providers shall comply with the Government’s Decree No. 60/2021/ND-CP dated June 21, 2021 prescribing financial autonomy of public service providers.

5. Collectors (including regulatory authorities and public service providers) shall make annual statements of their revenues and expenses as prescribed. After the collector has made annual statement of revenues and expenses as prescribed, the amount of fees which has been retained but unused in the year shall be carried forwards to the following year for covering the collector’s expenses as prescribed. Upon the end of 02 years of fee carryforward, the  collector shall be required to report the unused amount of fees to their supervisory Ministry for reporting the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam (in respect of fees under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, the Government or Standing Committee of National Assembly), or to supervisory provincial Department (in respect of fees under the jurisdiction of a People's Council of province or central-affiliated city (hereinafter referred to as "provincial People's Council”)) for reporting the relevant provincial People’s Committee that shall take charge of transfer such fees to state budget or request competent authorities to decide another appropriate percentage of fees to be retained”.

5. Clause 3 Article 6 is amended as follows:

“3. Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, People’s Supreme Court and People’s Supreme Procuracy shall:

a) Receive and appraise requests of fee/charge collectors in their management sectors/ fields, and then request the Government (in respect of fees/charges under the jurisdiction of the Government or the Standing Committee of National Assembly) or send official documents requesting the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam to formulate and submit documents prescribing fees and charges included in the list of fees and charges enclosed with the Law on fees and charges, collection, transfer, exemption, reduction, management and use thereof to a competent authority for promulgation (or promulgate such documents within its jurisdiction).

b) Regarding a type of fees/charges which is jointly collected by several collectors or local-government authorities (without a specific document issued to each collector): assign competent authorities to formulate, appraise and submit schemes to the Government (in respect of fees/charges under the jurisdiction of the Government or the Standing Committee of National Assembly) or send official documents requesting the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam to formulate and submit documents prescribing fees and charges included in the list of fees and charges enclosed with the Law on fees and charges, collection, transfer, exemption, reduction, management and use thereof to a competent authority for promulgation (or promulgate such documents within its jurisdiction).

c) In case of changes or removal of fees and charges included in the list of fees and charges enclosed with the Law on fees and charges: play the leading role and cooperate with relevant Ministries and regulatory authorities in formulating and submitting schemes thereon to the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam that takes charge of reporting the Government for requesting the Standing Committee of National Assembly to consider and make decision.”.

Article 2. Article 7 of the Government's Decree No. 120/2016/ND-CP dated August 23, 2016 elaborating law on fees and charges is abrogated.

1. This Decree comes into force from January 12, 2024.

2. In case any legislative documents referred to in this Decree are amended, supplemented or superseded, the new ones shall apply.

3. Ministers, heads of ministerial agencies, heads of Governmental agencies, and Chairpersons of provincial People’s Committees are responsible for the implementation of this Decree.