People who have completed their prison sentences can borrow up to 100 million VND for economic development.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Decision No. 22/2023/QD-TTg dated August 18, 2023 on credit for people who have completed their prison sentences. For loans for production, business, and job creation, the maximum loan amount is 100 million VND/person who has completed their prison sentence.
Loan recipients
The decision stipulates that loan subjects include:
1- Persons who have completed their prison sentences include those who have completed their prison sentences and have been granted a Certificate of Completion of Prison Sentences as prescribed in the Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments and those who have been granted amnesty and have been granted a Certificate of Amnesty as prescribed in the Law on Amnesty;
2- Production and business establishments include small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, cooperative groups, and business households that employ people who have completed their prison sentences.
Loan conditions
Regarding the conditions for borrowing capital, the Decision clearly states that a person who has completed his/her prison sentence and has a need to borrow capital must have his/her name on the list of people who have completed his/her prison sentence and are residing in the locality, comply with the provisions of the law, and not participate in social evils, established by the Commune Police and confirmed by the Commune People's Committee. The maximum time from the completion of the prison sentence to the time of borrowing capital is 05 years;
Loan conditions for production and business establishments: Established and operating legally in accordance with the provisions of law; employing at least 10% of the total number of employees who have completed their prison sentences and meet the above conditions and sign labor contracts in accordance with the provisions of labor law; having a loan plan and being confirmed by the People's Committee of the commune where the plan is implemented.
The Decision clearly states that people who have completed their prison sentences and production and business establishments specified above must have no outstanding debt at the Social Policy Bank for other credit programs with the same purpose of using loan capital for vocational training, production, business, and job creation according to the provisions of law to be eligible for loans.
Lending method
1- For those who have completed their prison sentence: The lending method is implemented through the household. The representative of the household of the person who has completed his prison sentence is the person who takes out the loan and transacts with the Social Policy Bank. In case there is no member in the household who is 18 years of age or older or the remaining member is no longer able to work or does not have full civil capacity as prescribed by law, the person who has completed his prison sentence will directly take out the loan at the Social Policy Bank. The Social Policy Bank where the loan is made will carry out the lending in the form of entrustment to socio-political organizations.
2- For production and business establishments: The Social Policy Bank where the loan is made shall make direct loans.
Purpose of loan use
The Decision also specifies the purpose of using the loan. Accordingly, for loans for vocational training: Expenses for studying and living expenses of people who have completed their prison sentences while studying at universities (or equivalent to universities), colleges, vocational secondary schools and vocational training institutions established and operating under the provisions of Vietnamese law. These expenses include: Tuition fees; costs of purchasing books and learning materials; food, accommodation and travel expenses.
For loans for production, business and job creation: Costs for production, business and job creation include costs for carrying out production, business and job creation activities.
Loan amount
Regarding the loan amount, the Decision stipulates that for loans for vocational training: The maximum loan amount is 4 million VND/month/person who has completed the prison sentence.
For loans for production, business, and job creation, the maximum loan amount is 100 million VND/person who has completed their prison sentence. For production and business establishments: The maximum loan amount is 2 billion VND/project and not more than 100 million VND/employee at the production and business establishment.
