New legal documents come into effect as from November 2016

1. Decree No. 135/2016/ND-CP dated 9 September 2016 of the Government on amendments to Decrees on land levy, and land and water surface rents shall come into force from 15 November 2016.
Accordingly, the Decree provides amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 45/2014/ND-CP stipulating land levy and Decree No. 46/2014/ND-CP stipulating land and water surface rents. Especially, Decree No. 135 stipulates that successful bidders of land use right or leasing land that pay annual land rental, will not be exempted or reduced from the land - using charges.
What is more, Decree No. 135 also revised Decree No. 46, providing that the starting price of an auction to receive the land use right for which the land rental shall be paid one time shall be identified by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and approved by the provincial People’s Committee with respect to (i) the land with its value more than or equal to VND 30 billion, which is located in provinces within the Central Government’s management; (ii) the land with its value more than or equal to VND 10 billion, which is located in mountainous provinces; and (iii) the land with its value more than or equal to VND 20 billion for the remaining provinces.
2. Decision No. 38/2016/QD-TTg dated 14 September 2016 of the Prime Minister promulgating a number of policies on forest protection and development, and support for investment in infrastructure construction and assignment of public-utility tasks to agricultural and forestry companies took effect as from 1 November 2016.
3. Decision No. 41/2016/QD-TTg dated 10 October 2016 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Regulation on management and administration of national target programs           shall take effect as from 25 November 2016.
4. Decision No. 42/2016/QD-TTg dated 10 October 2016 of the Prime Minister amending Item 1 Article 1 of the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 72/2007/QD-TTg dated 23 May 2007 on specific allowances for a number of judicial and inspection titles in the Army shall take effect as from  25 November 2016.
According to the Decision, tribunal presidents and tribunal vice presidents from military tribunals at all levels; directors, deputy directors, and procurators from military procuracies; chief inspectors, investigators shall get 15% of specific allowances. The rate of 10% specific allowances shall be given to inspectors and court secretaries of military tribunals.
5. Circular No. 32/2016/TT-BYT dated 15 September 2016 of the Ministry of Health defining the payment by hirers of altruistic gestational surrogates of actual expenses for the care of reproductive health took effect as from 1 November 2016.
The Circular stipulates that the hirer has to pay the following expenses for the surrogate such as (1) expense for travel to health care facilities for consultation, examination, monitoring, medical services and procedures; (2) expense for utilization of services of consultation, examination, treatment, medical procedures regarding the support and care of reproductive health; (3) expense for medicines, blood, intravenous fluids, chemicals, disposable materials and replacements having not been included in the expense of health care services; and, (4) expense for prenatal, gestational and postpartum nutrition and personal hygiene products as agreed by the hirer and surrogate.
6. Circular No. 115/2016/TT-BTC dated 30 June 2016 of the Ministry of Finance on amending and adding some articles of the Ministry of Finance’s Circular No. 196/2011/TT-BTC dated 26 December 2011 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the initial sale of shares and management and use of proceeds from equitation of wholly state-owned enterprises took effect as from 1 November 2016.
This Circular is to supplement to the provisions on attaching the auction at the Stock Exchange to the registration, depository and registration of trading of paid shares sold at auction of equitized enterprises.
According to the Circular, when an equitized enterprise registers the initial offering through the Stock Exchange, it must apply for registration, depository of shares sold at auction at the Vietnam Securities Depository and trading registration at Hanoi Stock Exchange at the same time (Clause 3 Article 1).
The number of shares sold to strategic investors and the employees of the equitized enterprise shall be registered and deposited under the guidance of the Vietnam Securities Depository and registered with the UPCoM trading system in accord with the applicable securities law.
7. Circular No. 22/2016/TT-BGTVT dated 1 September 2016 of the Ministry of Transport on management of activities of seaplanes, seaplane bases and water areas for takeoffs and landings took effect as from 1 November 2016.
This Circular stipulates the management of activities of seaplanes, seaplane bases, water areas for takeoffs and landings serving commercial flights.  In which, “Seaplanes” refer to the special-use planes designed for taking off, landing, moving on stretches of land or open water.
Moreover, activities of seaplanes on water shall be placed under the management of port authorities, inland waterway port authorities, Services of Transport where seaplane bases, water areas for takeoffs and landings are established and operate according to laws.
8. Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BCT dated 14 September 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on energy consumption norms in beer and beverage production industry took effect as from 1 November 2016.
This Circular stipulates method for determination of specific energy consumption (SEC) and energy consumption norms in beer and beverage production facilities in the period to the end of 2020 and the period from 2021 to the end of 2025 (exclusive of purified and mineral water production facilities).
Accordingly, SEC in beer production industry shall be determined according to capacity scale while SEC in beverage production industry shall be determined according to type of production of fizzy or still.
In case SEC of production facilities is higher than energy consumption norms in proportion to each period, the production facilities shall establish and implement measures to increase efficiency in energy use to satisfy requirements as prescribed in Clause 1, Clause 2, Article 5 of this Circular.
Production facilities that fail to meet energy consumption norms as prescribed and fail to propose feasible plans to ensure the norms shall be subject to penalties according to applicable regulations.
9. Circular No. 20/2016/TT-BCT dated 20 September 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the quota on energy consumption of the steel industry shall take effect from 8 November 2016.
This Circular regulates the quota on energy consumption of the following processes of production in the steel industry for the period that extends to the year of 2020 inclusive and the period that extends from 2021 to 2025 inclusive: Sintering of iron ore; iron making by blast furnace, steelmaking by (top-blown) converter, steelmaking by electric arc furnace, steelmaking by induction furnace; steel rolling.
The Circular does not govern the production of cast iron or steel for molding of mechanical parts; production of alloy steel as a material for machine building; production of hot-rolled flat steel sheets.
Accordingly, the quota on energy consumption shall be different, depending on each production process of steel. In particular, the quota on energy consumption of production of cast iron by blast furnace is highest and the quota on energy consumption of the production of steel billet by converter is lowest.
10. Circular No. 22/2016/TT-BCT dated 3 October 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade pertaining to the use of electronic certificate of origin (C/O) under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) shall take effect as from 15 November 2016 and replaces the Circular No. 42/2014/TT-BCT.
The Circular stipulates that electronic C/Os will be created based on the ‘C/O of D’ sample and can be transferred online through the ASEAN single window system. An electronic C/O will have the same legal effect as a physical, paper C/O. It can be applied, granted and used as a paper C/O.
The checks on electronic C/O applications will be similar to those on the paper ones. Related parties, including producers, exporters and organizations that grant C/O, have to keep the C/O data for five years from issuing date instead of the current three years.
At the start of the year, ASEAN member countries agreed to review some of the content in the ATIGA. Later, the ASEAN secretary board submitted a request to the mid-term ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) for the revision of two items -  one, a list of information and technology goods, and two, administrative procedures for granting C/O and check-ups to apply C/O. In March, AFTA approved the list of the Information and Technology Agreement (ITA) as per HS 2012.
11. Circular No. 28/2016/TT-NHNN dated 5 October 2016 of the State Bank on amendment and supplement to a number of articles of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Circular No. 21/2014/TT-NHNN dated 14 August 2014 providing guideline for scope of foreign exchange operations, licensing procedures and requirements for foreign exchange operations by credit institutions and branches of foreign banks shall effect from 18 November 2016.
Accordingly, one of the most important amendment of this Circular is the regulations on cases of conducting foreign exchange operations without making procedures for licensing application for supplement to forex operations at the State Bank of Vietnam, including these cases (Clause 4 Article 1):
(i) Authorized commercial banks and branches of foreign banks conduct foreign exchange derivatives after the State Bank of Vietnam releases any respective guideline and such authorized commercial banks and branches of foreign banks have obtained the State Bank’s permission to conduct forex derivatives in Vietnam dong;
(ii) Authorized commercial banks and branches of foreign banks conduct other forex activities after the State Bank of Vietnam releases any respective guideline
In addition, this Circular also enlarge scope of domestic and international forex operations with regard to authorized commercial banks and branches of foreign banks such as: open current accounts for foreign credit institutions; take foreign currency deposits from foreign credit institutions; conduct interest rate derivatives and other forex-related derivatives.
12. Beside the documents mentioned as above, other legal normative documents also come into effect as from November 2016, including:
- Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BCT dated 14 September 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on energy consumption rates in beer and beverage production took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 111/2016/TT-BTC dated 30 June 2016 of the Ministry of Finance on financial management of projects and plans using ODA loans and concessional loans of foreign donors took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 134/2016/TT-BTC dated 8 September 2016 of the Ministry of Finance issuing Regulation on financial management of Debt and Asset Trading Corporation of Vietnam took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 14/2016/TT-BKHCN dated 30 June 2016 of the Ministry of Science and Technology on management of lending activities funded by the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 24/2016/TT-BGTVT dated 15 September 2016 of the Ministry of Transport on technical economic norms for operation and maintenance of AIS System took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 04/2016/TT-TANDTC dated 16 September 2016 of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam guiding the activity of emulation and commendation of people’s courts took effect as from 1 November 2016;
- Circular No. 33/2016/TT-BYT dated 19 September 2016 of the Ministry of Health providing microbiological testing at hospitals took effect as from 3 November 2016;
- Circular No. 147/2016/TT-BQP dated 21 September 2016 of the Ministry of National Defense on management of titles of state-owned companies under the management of the Ministry of National Defense took effect as from 5 November 2016;
- Circular No. 22/2016/TT-BGDDT dated 22 September 2016 of the Ministry of Education and Training amending a number of articles of the Regulation on primary pupil performance evaluation promulgated together with the Minister of Education and Training’s Circular No. 30/2014/TT-BGDDT dated 28 August 2014 took effect as from 6 November 2016;
- Circular No. 20/2016/TT-BCT dated 20 September 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade prescribing energy consumption norms in the steel industry shall take effect as from 8 November 2016;
- Circular No. 25/2016/TT-BTNMT dated 22 September 2016 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall take effect as from 8 November 2016;
- Circular No. 34/2016/TT-BYT dated 21 September 2016 of the Ministry of Health shall take effect as from 10 November 2016;
- Circular No. 15/2016/TT-BKHDT dated 29 September 2016 of the Ministry of Planning and Investment guiding the making of dossiers of invitation to prequalification and bidding dossiers for selection of investors to implement investment projects in the form of public-private partnership will take effect as from 11 November 2016;
- Circular No. 27/2016/TT-NHNN dated 28 September 2016 of the State Bank of Vietnam guiding procedure for development and promulgation of legal normative document of the State Bank of Vietnam shall take effect as from 15 November 2016;
- Circular No. 36/2016/TT-BYT dated 29 September 2016 of the Ministry of Heath shall take effect as from 15 November 2016;
- Circular No. 26/2016/TT-BTNMT dated 29 September 2016 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall take effect as from 15 November 2016;
- Circular No. 13/2016/TT-BKHDT dated 29 September 2016 of the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall take effect as from 20 November 2016;
- Circular No. 23/2016/TT-BCT dated 12 October 2016 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on abolishment of Circular No. 37/2015/TT-BCT dated 30 October 2015 regulating content limits and inspection of formaldehyde and aromatic amines derived from azo colorants in textile products shall take effect from 26 November 2016;
- Circular No. 01/2016/TT-UBDT dated 12 October 2016 of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs regulating management of ministerial level science and technology tasks of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs shall take effect as from 28 November 2016;
- Circular No. 23/2016/TT-BGDDT dated 13 October 2016 of the Ministry of Education and Training on organization and operation of inspection of exams shall take effect as from 28 November 2016;
- Circular No. 147/2016/TT-BTC dated 13 October 2016 of the Ministry of Finance amending and supplementing some articles of the Ministry of Finance’s Circular No. 45/2013/TT-BTC dated 25 April 2013 guiding management, usage and depreciation of fixed assets shall take effect as from 28 November 2016;
- Circular No. 30/2016/TT-NHNN dated 14 October 2016 of the State Bank of Vietnam amending and supplementing some circulars on payment services and intermediary services shall take effect as from 28 November 2016;
- National Technical Regulation QCVN 41:2016/BGTVT dated 8 April 2016 of the Ministry of Transport on Traffic Signs and Signals took effect as from 1 November 2016./.