Featured policies effective from July 1, 2024

Increase basic salary from 1.8 to 2.34 million VND

In the Resolution of the 7th Session passed on the morning of June 29, the National Assembly agreed to reform wages and increase the basic salary from July 1. The National Assembly also agreed to increase the current pension and social insurance benefits by 15%. Those who were receiving pensions before 1995, if after adjustment they receive less than 3.2 million VND per month, will be adjusted to increase by 300,000 VND/month; those who receive from 3.2 to less than 3.5 million VND/month will be adjusted to equal 3.5 million VND/month.

In addition, preferential allowances for meritorious people at the standard level also increased by 35.7% from 2,055 to 2,789 million VND/month. Social assistance standards increased by 38.9%, from 360,000 to 500,000 VND/month; regional minimum wages increased by an average of 6%, effective from July 1.

For units that are applying special financial and income mechanisms at the Central level, the National Assembly proposed to continue reviewing the entire legal framework to have a basis for submitting to competent authorities to decide to amend or abolish the special financial and income mechanisms of agencies accordingly before December 31, 2024. The difference between the salary and additional income in June 2024 of cadres, civil servants and public employees and the salary from July 1 after amending or abolishing the special financial and income mechanisms will be reserved.

Integrate driver's license and ID card on VNeID

According to Circular 28 issued by the Ministry of Public Security on June 29, in addition to paper copies, traffic participants can present the following documents to traffic police via the VNeID application: driver's license; certificate of training in road traffic law; license or certificate of driving specialized motorbikes; vehicle registration certificate or certified copy of vehicle registration certificate with the original receipt of a valid credit institution.

In Decree 69/2024, effective from July 1, the Government stipulates that electronic identification is displayed as a feature and utility on citizens' VNeID accounts. The display form of electronic identification will be determined by the Minister of Public Security.

The electronic ID card is issued at the same time as the level 2 electronic identification account is issued to Vietnamese citizens. For those who already have a level 2 electronic identification account, the Ministry of Public Security is responsible for creating and displaying the electronic ID for them on VNeID from July 1.

This document also states that electronic ID cards have the same legal value as hard-copy ID cards. Electronic ID cards are permanently stored in the electronic identification and authentication system. Historical information on the use of electronic ID cards is also stored in the system for a period of 5 years from the time of use.

Connecting birth registration, permanent residence, health insurance card

People can register birth, permanent residence and health insurance cards for children under 6 years old at the same time on the public service portal, starting from July 1.

Decree 63/2024 stipulates electronic interconnection of 22 groups of administrative procedures including birth registration, permanent residence, issuance of health insurance cards for children under 6 years old and death registration, deletion of permanent residence registration, settlement of burial costs and death benefits.

Accordingly, people who handle administrative procedures in the electronic environment do not have to submit paper copies. The processing method is changed from pre-check to post-check. Administrative procedures performed in a connected manner have the same legal value as other forms and do not increase costs for individuals and organizations.

If the information in the electronic declaration is already in the Population, Civil Status, and Insurance Database, the public service software will automatically fill it in. The electronic records and forms of each procedure will also be automatically separated by the public service software to be transferred to the competent authority for processing.

2% VAT reduction

Also in the Resolution of the 7th Session, the National Assembly decided to extend the application of the 8% VAT, a 2% reduction compared to the current rate, until the end of this year. Similar to previous times, the 2% reduction in VAT applies to a number of groups of goods and services. The sectors that will continue to not receive this tax reduction include real estate, securities, banking services, telecommunications, information technology, coke, chemical products, goods and services subject to special consumption tax.

The extension of the 2% tax reduction until the end of this year is expected to reduce budget revenue in the second half of this year by about VND24,000 billion (equivalent to VND4,000 billion per month). Overall, the budget is estimated to decrease by VND47,500 billion for the whole year.

Four levels of authentication for online banking transactions from July 1

Decision 2345 of the State Bank on safety and security solutions in online payments and bank cards takes effect from July 1. In particular, authentication in online banking payments on the Internet (including Internet Banking and Mobile Banking) will be divided into four levels, from simple to complex.

The simplest is type A transaction, customers only need to authenticate with username, password or PIN, and authentication is not required at the transaction step if they have logged in before. This form is only applied to information lookup transactions; money transfers within the same bank, same account holder or payment transactions for goods and services under 5 million VND.

Transferring money to others, whether in the same or different banks; transferring money, depositing, withdrawing money with e-wallets under 10 million VND per transaction and under 20 million VND per day must be authenticated by OTP, biometric identification attached to a handheld device, or by secure electronic signature. Payment transactions for goods and services worth 5-100 million VND in one transaction or in one transaction day must also apply this level.

Biometrics (fingerprints, facial recognition) matching the data on the chip-embedded citizen identification card or electronic identification account belong to two transaction levels C and D. This authentication requirement applies to transfers of VND 10 million or more or total daily transfers exceeding VND 20 million, and goods and service transactions exceeding VND 100 million.