Regulations and laws effective from January 1, 2020

If you drink alcohol, you are not allowed to drive.

The 2019 Law on Prevention and Control of Alcohol Harm comes into effect from January 1, 2020. Accordingly, the Law stipulates 13 prohibited acts, including a complete ban on driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Specifically, regardless of whether the driver of a road vehicle (car, tractor, motorbike, electric motorbike, motorbike) or a primitive road vehicle (bicycle, cyclo, wheelchair, animal-drawn cart...) is allowed to drink alcohol while driving on the road.

In addition, the law also has provisions prohibiting inciting, inciting, enticing, or forcing others to drink alcohol; prohibiting people under 18 years of age from drinking alcohol...

Increase regional minimum wage

On the first day of the new year 2020, Decree 90/2019/ND-CP stipulates that employees working in enterprises under labor contracts will receive a salary increase of 150,000-240,000 VND compared to 2019.

Accordingly, the salary in region I is 4,420,000 VND per month (an increase of 240,000 VND), region II is 3,920,000 VND (an increase of 210,000 VND); region III is 3,430,000 VND (an increase of 180,000 VND); region IV is 3,070,000 VND (an increase of 150,000 VND).

The Decree also clearly states that the application of the regional minimum wage stipulated in this Decree is the lowest level as a basis for enterprises and employees to negotiate and pay wages, in which the wage paid to employees working under normal working conditions, ensuring enough normal working hours in a month and completing the agreed labor norms or work must ensure: not lower than the regional minimum wage for employees doing the simplest work; at least 7% higher than the regional minimum wage for employees doing work requiring employees to have undergone vocational training as prescribed in the Decree.

Gay and transgender prisoners are held separately

This is a new point in the 2019 Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments, which takes effect from January 1, 2020.

Accordingly, female prisoners; prisoners under 18 years of age; foreign prisoners; prisoners with group A infectious diseases as prescribed by the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases; prisoners showing signs of mental illness and other diseases that cause loss of cognitive ability or ability to control their behavior while awaiting a court decision will be placed in separate detention.

In addition, 2 subjects are added to be detained separately: homosexuals, transgender people, people with undetermined gender; prisoners with children under 36 months old following their mothers to prison.

Prohibit beating and torturing animals

The 2018 Law on Animal Husbandry, effective from January 1, 2020, stipulates the humane treatment of animals as follows: Do not beat or torture animals; have barns and breeding spaces suitable for animals; provide enough food and drinking water to ensure hygiene...

In addition, slaughterhouses must have a place to keep animals that ensures hygiene; provide suitable drinking water for animals while waiting for slaughter; limit fear and pain for animals. At the same time, do not beat or torture animals; have measures to make animals faint before slaughter; do not let animals witness the slaughter of their own kind.

Finance companies are not allowed to call customers' relatives to collect debts.

From January 1, 2020, Circular 18/2019 of the State Bank of Vietnam amending Circular 43/2016 regulating consumer lending by finance companies takes effect.

Accordingly, financial companies will not be allowed to remind customers of debts, collect debts, or send information about debt collection from customers to organizations or individuals who are not obligated to pay debts, such as customers' relatives, except in cases where there is a request from a competent state agency; Customers are only allowed to remind customers of debts a maximum of 5 times/day.

The consumer loan contract must have an agreement on the form of debt reminder and the time of debt reminder; Customer information must be kept confidential according to the provisions of law.

Violations in the land sector are subject to fines of up to 1 billion VND.

From January 5, 2020, Decree 91/2019 of the Government on administrative sanctions for violations in the land sector takes effect.

This Decree increases a series of fines for violations in this field, typically: Fines of up to 500 million VND for individuals and 1 billion VND for organizations for encroaching on unused land, agricultural land, and non-agricultural land (100 times higher than the previous fine).

Fines of up to 500 million VND for individuals and 1 billion VND for organizations if they arbitrarily convert rice-growing land to residential land (10 levels higher than before).Fines of up to 20 million VND for individuals and 40 million VND for organizations if transferring land use rights without a Red Book (4 times higher than before).

Fines of up to 5 million VND for individuals and 10 million VND for organizations if the Red Book is not transferred when transferring land use rights (double the previous fine).Fines of up to 10 million VND for individuals and 20 million VND for organizations if land is abandoned without force majeure (This fine level was not previously regulated).

New motorbikes to be energy labelled from 2020

Circular 59/2018 of the Ministry of Transport regulating energy labeling for manufactured, assembled and imported motorbikes and scooters takes effect from January 1, 2020.

It requires manufacturing and importing establishments to print energy labels according to the model and stick them on each vehicle in an easily observable location before putting them on the market. This label is maintained on the vehicle until it is delivered to the consumer.

Before energy labeling, manufacturers and importers must publicly disclose information on fuel consumption. Public information must be maintained throughout the time the manufacturer, importer and dealer of the vehicle supplies that type of vehicle to the market.