Policies take effect since January 2018

Ten laws become effective since January 1

Ten laws coming into force since January 1,2018 include: (1) the Criminal Code No. 100/2015/QH13; (2) the Criminal Procedure Code; (3) the Law on Temporary Detention and Custody; (4) the Law on Organization of Criminal Investigation Bodies; (5) the Law on Legal Aid; (6) the Law on Religion and Folk Blief; (7) the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized enterprises; (8) the Law on Foreign Trade Management; (9) the Law on Public Asset Management and Usage; and (10) the Law on Tourism.

Regional minimum wage increase

Under Decree No. 141/2017/ND-CP, dated December 7, 2017, the regional minimum wages will increase by VND180,000-230,000 ($7.91-10.11), depending on the region, since January 1. (See the table below).

New import, export tariffs

The Government on November 16, 2017 issued Decree 125/2017/ND-CP amending and supplementing some articles of Decree No. 122/2016/ND-CP, dated September 1, 2016 on schedules of export tariffs, preferential import tariffs, list of goods and its flat tax, compound tariff and out-of- qouta tariff, applicable since since January 1, 2018.

Amendments on land use fee

Government’s Decree No. 123/2017/ND-CP, dated November 14, 2017 amending and supplementing regulations on collection of land use fees, land rents, and water surface rents takes effect since January 1, 2018.

Specifically, the Decree 123 amends and supplements some articles of Decree No. 45/2014/ND-CP, dated May 15, 2014 providing the collection of land use fees and Decree 46/ND-CP, dated May 15, 2014 on land rents and water surface rents.

New rules applicable to temporarily detailed or detailed persons

The Government issued Decree No. 120/2017/ND-CP, dated November 6, 2017 detailing a number of articles of Law on implementation of temporary custody and detention.

Accordingly, temporarily-detailed foreigners cannot be allowed for consular contact in the six following cases (1) refuse to contact consular; (2) for urgent reasons, ensuring security, order and safety of the detention facility; (3) when an epidemic occurs at the detention facility; (4) in case of emergency; (5) the detainee has violated the Internal rules of the detention facility; (6) the consular contact violates the Internal rules.

Children under 36 months of age living with their mothers in custody or detention establishments will be entitled to caring and rearing regime.

New points in equitizing SOEs  

Government’s Decree No. 126/2017/ND-CP, dated November 16, 2017 on transforming SOEs and one-member limited liability companies with 100% charter capital invested by State-owned enterprises into joint stock companies takes effect since January 1, 2018./.

By Huong Giang