CIRCULAR

ON AMENDMENTS TO CIRCULAR No. 31/2014/TT-BTC DATED MARCH 7, 2014 OF THE MINISTER OF FINANCE ON GUIDANCE ON PENALTIES FOR ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLATIONS AGAINST REGULATIONS ON PRICE MANAGEMENT PRESCRIBED IN THE GOVERNMENT'S DECREE NO. 109/2013/ND-CP DATED SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 ON PENALTIES FOR ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLATIONS AGAINST REGULATIONS ON MANAGEMENT OF PRICES, FEES, CHARGES, AND INVOICES

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 81/2013/ND-CP dated July 19, 2013 on guidelines for the Law on handling administrative violations;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP dated September 24, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of prices, fees, charges, and invoices;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP dated May 27, 2016 on amendments to the Government's Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP dated September 24, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of prices, fees, charges, and invoices;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 215/2013/ND-CP dated December 12, 2013 defining functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

At the request of the Director of Department of Price management,

The Minister of Finance promulgates a Circular on amendments to Circular No. 31/2014/TT-BTC dated March 7, 2014 of the Minister of Finance on guidance on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on price management prescribed in the Government's Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP dated September 24, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of prices, fees and charges, invoices (hereinafter referred to as Circular No. 31/2014/TT-BTC).

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1. Point dd Clause 1 of Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

"dd) Review of setting-aside, use, carrying forward, or accounting of Price stabilization fund (applicable to covered goods);”

2. Clause 2 of Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

“2. Any violation against regulations on price registration that serves price stabilization purposes shall be handled under provisions of Clause 4 Article 1 of the Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP and Clause 4 Article 1 hereof.”

3. Clause 3 shall be added to Article 3 as follows:

“3.  Interests accrued from the balance of Price stabilization fund prescribed in Clause 2 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP shall be determined according to short-term loaning interest rates applicable to enterprises of commercial banks in the place where central traders opened deposit accounts of Price stabilization fund in the same period.”

4. Article 4 shall be amended as follows:

“Article 4. Guidance on Clause 3 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP

Remedial measures: compulsory return of the excess over the prescribed price to the customers earned from the violations in Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3 and Clause 4 of this Article. The excess shall be remitted to government budget if the customers are not identifiable.
The amount of excess prescribed in Clause 5 Article 8 of Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP is an mount earned from selling goods and services at higher prices than that decided by competent authorities or persons prescribed in legislative documents, decisions or notifications; the amount of excess equals the difference between the prices that are above the prescribed prices or maximum prices in the bracket decided by competent authorities or persons (equivalent to a unit of goods or services) multiply by quantity of goods or services sold/supplied.

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“Article 6. Violations against price registration, price declaration of goods or services prescribed in Clause 4 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP

1. Failure to submit price declaration form to competent authorities prescribed in Clause 4 Article 1 of the Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP means failure to submit a price declaration form to competent authorities prior to the price valuation, and price adjustments as prescribed.

2. Failure to carry out price registration with competent authorities prescribed in Clause 4 Article 1 of the Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP means failure prepare, analyze the price forming and submit a price registration from to competent authorities or failure to submit a description of price registration as prescribed by receiving authorities (if any) before the price valuation or adjustments during the period in which the State applies price registration for stabilization purposes as prescribed."

6. Clause 1a shall be added  to Article 7 as follows:

“5. Clause 1a shall be added to Article 7 as follows:

1a. Increase the price which has been registered/has to be registered with and declared to a competent authority as prescribed in Point a Clause 1 Article 13 of Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP.”

7. Article 11 shall be amended as follows:

“Article 11. Violations against regulations on valuation training and improvement institutions

1. Violations shall be determined according to reports of valuation training and improvement institutions as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance in terms of valuation training and improvement or determination of valuation training and improvement institutions issued by competent authorities.

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a) Mandatory suspension of valuation training and certification institution that has the enforcement period of 60 (sixty) days in respect of violations defined in Clause 5 (a) Article 21 of the Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP that is amended by Clause 10 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP in case of without mitigating or aggravating circumstances. In the event that there is any mitigating or aggravating circumstance, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension shall be prescribed as follows:

- If at least one mitigating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 30 (thirty) days;

- If at least one aggravating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 90 (ninety) days.

b) Mandatory suspension of valuation training and certification institution that has the enforcement period of 135 (one hundred and thirty five) days in respect of violations defined in Clause 5 (b) Article 21 of the Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP that is amended by Clause 10 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP in case of without mitigating or aggravating circumstances. In the event that there is any mitigating or aggravating circumstance, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension shall be prescribed as follows:

- If at least one mitigating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 90 (ninety) days;

- If at least one aggravating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 180 (one hundred and eighty) days.

c) Mandatory suspension of valuation training and certification institution that has the enforcement period of 225 (two hundred and twenty five) days in respect of violations defined in Clause 5 (c) Article 21 of the Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP that is amended by Clause 10 Article 1 of Decree No. 49/2016/ND-CP in case of without mitigating or aggravating circumstances. In the event that there is any mitigating or aggravating circumstance, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension shall be prescribed as follows:

- If at least one mitigating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 180 (one hundred and eighty) days;

- If at least one aggravating circumstance exists, the enforcement period of such mandatory suspension is 270 (two hundred and seventy) days.

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8. Article 12 of Circular No. 31/2014/TT-BTC dated March 7, 2014 of the Minister of Finance on guidance on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on price management prescribed in the Government's Decree No. 109/2013/ND-CP dated September 24, 2013 on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of prices, fees and charges, invoices shall be annulled.

Article 2. Effect

This Circular comes into force December 5, 2016.

Article 3. Implementation

1. Presidents of the People’s Committees, the Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance, Head of Inspectorates, Chief Inspector of Service of Finance, inspectors, Chief Inspectors of Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and equivalent positions, competent persons of market management authorities prescribed in Article 45 of the Law on handling administrative violations shall initiate the handling of administrative violations in the field of price management in accordance with regulations of law.

2. Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Ministry of Finance for consideration./.

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Thông tư 153/2016/TT-BTC sửa đổi Thông tư 31/2014/TT-BTC hướng dẫn xử phạt vi phạm hành chính trong lĩnh vực quản lý giá tại Nghị định 109/2013/NĐ-CP quy định xử phạt vi phạm hành chính trong lĩnh vực quản lý giá, phí, lệ phí, hóa đơn do Bộ trưởng Bộ Tài chính ban hành