13 Laws effective from January 1, 2015

From January 1, 2015, 13 Laws officially took effect with many important contents such as: Expanding the scope of benefits and levels of health insurance; allowing surrogacy for humanitarian purposes; exempting corporate income tax on income from agricultural and aquatic product processing of cooperatives; strengthening control and management of construction quality; overcoming scattered, wasteful, and ineffective investment in public investment.

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The 13 Laws include:1- Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance; 2- Law on Employment; 3- Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the laws on taxes; 4- Law on Marriage and Family; 5- Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine; 6- Law on Notarization; 7- Law on Customs; 8- Law on Construction; 9- Law on Public Investment; 10- Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Inland Waterway Traffic; 11- Law on Environmental Protection; 12- Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam; 13- Law on Bankruptcy.

Expanding the scope of benefits and levels of health insurance

According to the Law on Health Insurance, people's health insurance benefits will be expanded. Accordingly, people living in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions; people living in island communes and island districts will be granted free health insurance cards from the guaranteed State budget.

The law abolishes the regulation on co-payment of 5% for the poor, social security beneficiaries, ethnic minorities living in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions; people living in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions; people living in island communes and island districts. The regulation on co-payment of 20% for relatives of people with revolutionary contributions who are biological fathers, biological mothers, wives or husbands, children of martyrs, and people who have raised martyrs is abolished.

The law also reduces the co-payment rate from 20% to 5% for other relatives of meritorious people and people from near-poor households.

Notably, the Health Insurance Fund will pay 100% of medical examination and treatment costs when the patient has participated in health insurance for 5 consecutive years or more and the amount of co-payment for medical examination and treatment costs in the year is greater than 6 months of basic salary.

The Employment Law regulates 5 major groups of issues

The Law on Employment consists of 7 chapters and 62 articles, regulating 5 major groups of issues including: 1- Job creation support policies; 2- Labor market information; 3- Assessment and issuance of national vocational skills certificates; 4- Organization and operation of employment services; 5- Unemployment insurance.

In particular, the public employment policy is a new policy with the goal of providing temporary paid jobs for workers through the implementation of projects or activities using state capital associated with socio-economic development programs at the commune level, including: building infrastructure for agricultural, forestry, fishery and salt production; building public infrastructure; protecting the environment; responding to climate change; projects and activities serving the local community.

Exemption from corporate income tax on income from agricultural and aquatic product processing of cooperatives

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Laws on Taxation stipulates exemption of corporate income tax (CIT) for income from agricultural and aquatic product processing activities of cooperatives and enterprises in particularly difficult areas. A tax rate of 10% is applied to income from agricultural and aquatic product processing activities of cooperatives and enterprises in difficult areas. A tax rate of 15% is applied to income of enterprises engaged in cultivation, animal husbandry, and processing in the agricultural and aquatic fields not located in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions or areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.

Regarding value added tax, the Law adds non-taxable objects for offshore fishing vessels; changes three groups of goods subject to the 5% tax rate to non-taxable objects: fertilizers; animal feed, poultry and other livestock feed; machinery and specialized equipment serving agricultural production.

Surrogacy for humanitarian purposes

The 2014 Law on Marriage and Family has some notable new amendments and supplements, such as amending regulations on marriage (age of marriage; removing the prohibition on marriage between people of the same sex, but "the State does not recognize marriage between people of the same sex").

In addition, the Law also adds provisions on surrogacy for humanitarian purposes, this addition aims to meet the needs of couples who want to have children but the wife cannot become pregnant.

Prohibition of bringing soil and importing harmful organisms

The Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine has added a number of new principles in plant protection and quarantine activities, such as the principle of preventing and controlling harmful organisms, which is implemented according to the principle of prevention first; applying comprehensive pest management measures in a sustainable direction, in which priority is given to biological measures, using pest-resistant plant varieties, technical measures for cultivation, good agricultural practices; using pesticides must follow the four correct principles to ensure effectiveness, safety for people, food safety, minimizing environmental pollution, and protecting the ecosystem.

The Law stipulates prohibited acts, emphasizing the prohibited acts of bringing soil, importing harmful organisms into Vietnam, breeding harmful organisms; producing, trading, using, preserving, transporting, disposing, collecting, and treating pesticides and pesticide packaging in violation of regulations.

Improve the quality of notary activities

Regarding the Law on Notarization, the basic contents regulating notaries, notary practice organizations, notarization procedures and State management of notarization, the scope of notarization is expanded.

The Law focuses on regulations on notaries and notary practice organizations, aiming to improve the quality of the notary team, develop large-scale notary practice organizations with stable operations, and improve the quality of notary activities.

Fundamental change in customs clearance methods

The Customs Law clearly stipulates the promotion of customs procedure reform, modernization of customs management, fundamental change in the method of implementing customs procedures from traditional, semi-electronic methods to electronic methods, continued simplification of customs administrative procedures, application of management principles to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of customs management activities, strengthening the protection of national security and economic security to prevent smuggling, illegal transportation of goods across borders, and trade fraud.

Strengthening control and management of construction quality

The basic principle and core content of the Construction Law is to innovate the method and content of project management, especially projects using State capital, to overcome loss and waste, and to improve the quality of construction works.

The 2014 Construction Law with many new points will strengthen the control and management of construction quality at all stages in the construction investment process, ensuring publicity and transparency in the construction licensing process; overcoming overlapping planning and suspended planning, ensuring that construction investment projects are on target, of quality and efficiency, and enhancing the State's management role in construction.

Overcoming scattered, wasteful and ineffective investment in public investment

The Law on Public Investment has institutionalized the process of deciding on investment policies. This is the most important innovation of the Law on Public Investment, considered the starting point to determine the correctness and effectiveness of programs and projects in accordance with the goals, orientations, plans, planning and development policies of the Party and State.

At the same time, it will prevent arbitrariness, subjectivity, and voluntarism in deciding on investment policies, enhance the responsibility of those who decide on investment policies, and contribute to overcoming the situation of scattered, wasteful, and ineffective investment in public investment.

Development of inland waterway transport must be consistent with transport development planning.

With the Law on Inland Waterway Traffic, there are many new points that have been amended and supplemented, such as the regulation that the development of inland waterway traffic must be consistent with the planning of transport development and ensure national defense and security, develop the structure in a modern and synchronous direction in terms of channels, routes, ports, wharves, management technology, etc. People's Committees at all levels organize the registration of inland waterway vehicles according to the regulations of the Minister of Transport and organize the management of vehicles exempted from registration.

Regarding inland waterway vehicles, the Law abolishes the registration requirement for small non-motorized vehicles with a capacity of 5 tons to less than 15 tons. Regarding vehicle drivers, the amended Law has abolished the age limit of no more than 55 years for women and 60 years for men to suit actual conditions.

Supplementing regulations on green growth and climate change

The Law on Environmental Protection amends and supplements a number of provisions on green growth, climate change, and environmental security. At the same time, it harmonizes the provisions of the Law with international commitments on the environment as reflected in international treaties on the environment that Vietnam has signed and participated in.

The new regulations are also consistent with the characteristics of environmental science, such as considering prevention as the main focus, environmental factors being organically linked together, and not being divided by administrative boundaries.

Enterprises are allowed to practice asset management during bankruptcy settlement.

The new point in the basic content of the Bankruptcy Law is that an insolvent enterprise or cooperative is an enterprise or cooperative that fails to fulfill its debt payment obligation within 3 months from the due date. Accordingly, the Bankruptcy Law no longer uses the concept of “falling into bankruptcy” but uses the concept of “insolvency”.

A particularly important point added in the Bankruptcy Law 2014 is the institution of the Administrator, which stipulates that individuals and enterprises allowed to practice asset management during the bankruptcy settlement process include: Administrators and enterprises managing and liquidating assets.

Facilitate foreigners to enter, exit and reside in Vietnam

The Law on Exit, Entry, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam creates many conveniences for foreigners to exit, enter, transit, and reside in Vietnam for sightseeing, tourism, market research, investment cooperation, business, study, etc., while also meeting the requirements of protecting national security and maintaining social order and safety.

One of the regulations that people are interested in is that visas cannot be converted for other purposes to ensure management and overcome the situation of foreigners applying to enter Vietnam for tourism and then working at construction sites, projects, or teaching as in the past.

According to Chinhphu.vn