12 December, 2019
The Law on amending and supplementing the Law on Insurance Business and Law on Intellectual Property, coming into effect on November 1, reflects Viet Nam’s efforts in implementing its commitments under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Tran-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The new law opens up door for auxiliary insurance services, which include insurance consultancy, insurance risk assessment, insurance loss assessment, and other services arising in the process of conducting insurance business.
Individuals shall only be allowed to provide insurance consultancy service provided that they are aged 18 or older, have full civil act capacity, and possess an insurance training diploma or certificate or have experience in the field of insurance.
Meanwhile, insurance companies are entitled to provide all insurance auxiliary services.
Kissing person under 16 could be considered sexual abuse
Resolution No. 06/2019/NQ-HDTP of the Judges' Council of the Supreme People's Court provides guidelines for settlement of cases of sexual abuse of persons under 18.
Under the Resolution, molestation means an act committed by a person against another person of different or the same sex that involves direct or indirect physical contact via clothing with a reproductive organ, private part or one of the other body parts of a person under 16 that is sexual in nature but is not committed with the intention to engage in sexual intercourse
Kissing a person under 16 shall be considered as one of behaviors of sexual abuse from November 5, 2019.
The Resolution also stipulates that a court shall not be allowed to require aggrieved person to report crime in detail throughout the process of settling sexual abuse cases.
List of plant protection drugs banned from use
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development promulgated Circular No. 10/2019/TT-BNNPTNT on list of plant protection drugs for use and banned from use in Viet Nam, which takes effect on November 5.
The Circular enlists 41 types of plant protection drugs completely banned from use in Viet Nam, including drugs containing substances like Chlordimeform, Isobenzen, Isodrin among others.
Drugs containing Chlorpyrifos ethyl and Fipronil shall only be imported to Viet Nam until February 12, 2020 and these drugs shall only be sold until February 12, 2021.
New regulations on e-invoicing
The Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 68/2019/TT-BTC guiding the implementation of Decree 119/2018/ND-CP on e-invoicing, which comes into effect from 14 November, 2019 to October 31, 2020.
Under the Circular, enterprises, economic organizations, business households shall have to registered application of e-invoicing since November 1, 2020.
Electronic tax transactions
Circular No. 66/2019/TT-BTC amending the Circular No. 110/2015/TT-BTC providing instructions on electronic tax transactions comes into effect from November 5.
Under the Circular, if the tax type, sample tax return, tax assessment period, tax declaration period or From/To date for tax return submission on the web portal of the General Department of Taxation is incorrect or has changed, the following steps must be followed:
The taxpayer may sign in their account to access the web portal of the General Department of Taxation or the T-VAN service provider and make any authorized change.
The tax authority verifies and updates information on the taxpayer’s responsibility for tax return submission.
The tax authority will also send the confirmation feedback to the taxpayer via the web portal of the General Department of Taxation or via the T-VAN service provider within 02 working days from the date on which such change is made (unlike 05 working days prescribed in existing regulations).
For further information, please contact:
Dang The Duc, Partner, Indochine Counsel
duc.dang@indochinecounsel.com
