Foreign investors can own stakes exceeding the prescribed limit in local banks, says a draft decree prepared by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). The decree is drawn up to replace Decree 69/2007/ND-CP dated April 20, 2007. It has been submitted to the Government. As per the draft decree, an individual foreigner can own a maximum stake of 20% in a credit institution with no need to get the nod from... 

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has reduced key interest rates by one percentage point while deposit rates for tenors less than 12 months remain at 7.5% per annum. The refinancing rate, discounted rate, and overnight rate for electronic inter-bank transactions has been cut by one percentage point to 7%, 5% and 8% per annum respectively. In Circular No. 10/2013/TT-NHNN issued last Friday, SBV also... 

Tussles between local and foreign coffee exporters in the past three to four years will come to an end on June 7 when foreign entities are banned from directly purchasing coffee from farmers and establishing coffee buying networks, says a new Ministry of Industry and Trade circular. Circular 08/2013/TT-BTC provides detailed regulations on commodity trading and other related activities of foreign direct... 

The Vietnam Gold Business Association has written to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), proposing loans for enterprises to buy gold via auctions. SBV has specified the minimum gold volume to bid for is 1,000 taels, requiring bidders to have abundant working capital. However, gold trading businesses are not as financially strong as banks, says a dispatch sent from the association. “The above requirement... 

The amended Corporate Income Tax Law reintroduces tax incentives for investment expansion, which is expected to encourage foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) to raise their investment capital in the near future. Applause from FIEs It is not until May that the Ministry of Finance will submit the draft amended law to the National Assembly (NA), but many entrepreneurs have expressed their joy at the news... 

The Ministry of Finance is weighing to impose a new tariff on jewelry exports as the current tax rate, which has been applied since 2011, is no longer suitable to the current context. Speaking at a seminar on jewelry market development organized by the Vietnam Gold Business Association in HCMC on Saturday, Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang from the ministry’s tax policy department said that local enterprises... 

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) during a conference last Friday confirmed the possibility of further interest rate reduction in the coming time, saying that short-term lending rates will be slashed to around 7% per annum by the end of this year. SBV governor Nguyen Van Binh said that both deposit and lending rates will drop further if the inflation rate is curbed below 7% and the macro economy is stabilized... 

Illegal goods importers and dealers will be fined VND80-100 million if contraband volume worth over VND100 million is detected by authorities. Vehicle owners, drivers or deliverymen, and warehouse owners involved in transporting and storing such a volume of goods will face the same penalty. If the value of illicit goods is from VND1 million to below VND100 million, importers, dealers and other involved... 

Value added tax (VAT) incentives for traders in border-gate economic zones (EZs) should be limited to prevent tax fraud and evasions, the Ministry of Finance proposed. Many cases of taking advantage of the preferential policy for border-gate economic zones to get VAT tax refunds have been discovered. Multiple traders have brought domestic goods from elsewhere into non-tariff zones and then launched... 

Opinions differ between the National Assembly and the Ministry of Finance as to whether corporate income tax should be lowered to 23% or 20%, but economist Pham Chi Lan said the tax should be slashed to 20% immediately. Enterprises in Vietnam are mired in troubles, especially financial distress, so tax cuts will be an effective remedy for them, she said in an interview. Corporate income tax in Vietnam...