State Bank proposes to exempt fines for people exchanging 100 USD

On the morning of October 28, regarding the case of Mr. Nguyen Ca Re (residing in Ninh Kieu district, Can Tho city) being administratively fined 90 million VND after exchanging 100 USD, Mr. Tran Quoc Ha - Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Can Tho city branch said, after receiving instructions from the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam,The unit is drafting a document to advise the People's Committee of Can Tho City on how to handle the case.

Accordingly, Mr. Ha will propose to consider exempting or reducing the fine of 90 million VND for Mr. Ca Re with the following reasons: this is the first violation, his legal knowledge is limited. In addition, Mr. Re is in difficult circumstances with the income level of an electrician, so paying the fine of the above amount is impossible. In case of considering 100% exemption from paying the fine, the evidence of 100 USD can be returned.

However, according to the Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Can Tho City branch, this is just a discussion direction and there is no official document yet.

As for Thao Luc gold shop, where Mr. Re exchanged 100 USD, the handling was in accordance with regulations because this place had bought and sold foreign currency without a license from the competent authority and was caught red-handed.

Previously, at the end of January 2018, when Mr. Ca Re brought 100 USD to Thao Luc gold shop to exchange for Vietnamese currency, he was checked by the authorities and a record was made.

Afterwards, Mr. Re was fined 90 million VND by the People's Committee of Can Tho City and had 2,260,000 VND confiscated (converted from 100 USD) according to Point a, Clause 3, Article 24 of Decree 96/2014/ND-CP of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the field of currency and banking (buying and selling foreign currency at an organization not authorized to exchange foreign currency).

Due to difficult circumstances, he asked Can Tho authorities to not pay the fine of 90 million VND.

As for Thao Luc gold shop, it was administratively fined 295 million VND, with an additional penalty of confiscation of 100 USD. At the same time, this enterprise also had 20 diamonds and 19,910 artificial stones worth 548,664,000 VND confiscated according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 14, Article 21 of Decree 185/2013/ND-CP dated November 15, 2013 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in commercial activities, production, trade of counterfeit goods, prohibited goods and protection of consumer rights, and this company has completed the penalty decision.