THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- Enterprises and production and/or business establishments, which, due to objective causes, owe tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget, may have such debts rescheduled, frozen or forgiven according to the following stipulations:

1. Tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget shall be rescheduled in the following cases:

a/ Enterprises that owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts but are unable to repay them to the State budget within the prescribed time limit due to such objective causes as changes in tax or State budget collection policies which affect their production and business results; the relocation of their business places at the requests of competent State agencies; or damage caused by natural calamities. The duration for which enterprises may enjoy deferred payment of tax debts and/or other State budget amounts shall be 12 months at most, counting from the debt determination date.

b/ Enterprises that owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts because the State has not yet settled capital sources for them shall have their debts rescheduled until the State settles the capital sources.

c/ Enterprises that have been owning tax debts and/or other State budget amounts prior to December 31, 1998 shall have to register the debt payment plan with the tax-collecting agencies. They must pay up tax debts and/or other State budget amounts by December 31, 2002 at the latest.

Enterprises that have their debts rescheduled according to the provisions of Clause 1, this Article, must fully pay tax debts and/or other State budget amounts strictly according to the reschedule time limit.

The importing/exporting enterprises and production and/or business establishments that still owe import/export tax debts must work out plans to gradually repay their debts or part of their old debts before making import declarations and must not let new import tax debts arise.

2. Tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget shall be frozen for enterprises that owe tax arrears and/or other amounts payable to the State budget but are unable to pay them because they suffer from losses in their production and business activities and are falling into the state of dissolution or bankruptcy. If enterprises are dissolved or go bankrupt, the debt recovery measures and procedures shall comply with provisions of the legislation on dissolution and bankruptcy.

3. Investment capital support shall be given to the following cases:

State enterprises (including those already converted into joint-stock companies) that have investment projects already approved by the competent agencies but had, due to capital shortage, used tax and other State budget amounts up to December 31, 1999 for investment project implementation and are still unable to repay them, if the investment projects have been completed and put to use, such enterprises shall be considered for investment capital support from the tax and other State budget amounts already used by them to supplement investment capital.

For the tax and other State budget amounts as from January 1, 2000 which have not yet been remitted but used for investment by enterprises, such enterprises shall have to fully and immediately repay them to the State budget and shall, depending on the seriousness of their violations, be sanctioned according to regulations.

4. Tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget shall be forgiven in the following cases:

a/ State enterprises to be assigned or sold under the Government�s Decree No. 103/1999/ND-CP of September 10, 1999, whose payable amounts are larger than the enterprises� asset value or the proceeds from the sale of enterprises.

b/ State enterprises converted into joint-stock companies that still owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts, enjoy financial and credit support measures, but still meet with difficulties and are unable to pay tax debts and/or other State budget amounts.

c/ State enterprises permitted for merger into other State enterprises, for which the financial and credit support measures have been applied, but the merging enterprises are still unable to pay tax debts and/or other State budget amounts. The maximum tax debts and other State budget amounts to be forgiven shall be equal to the loss amounts incurred by the merged enterprises.

d/ State enterprises which suffer from production and business losses, have been owing tax debts and/or other State budget amounts prior to 1998 due to such causes as changes in mechanisms and policies, natural calamity damages, the shortage of investment capital for renewing technologies, machinery and equipment, or difficulties in labor settlement and arrangement, if they are not subject to dissolution or bankruptcy and entitled to debt remission prescribed at Points a, b and c, Clause 4 of this Article, and after the tax exemption and reduction measures, financial and/or credit support measures and other measures are applied under the provisions of law, they still suffer from losses and are unable to pay tax debts and/or other State budget amounts. The maximum tax debt and/or other State budget amounts to be forgiven shall be equal to the enterprises� loss amounts calculated up to the year of debt remission.

e/ Importing/exporting enterprises whose taxes and fines for import/export business activities are retrospectively collected due to such objective causes as the change in policies, unclear or inadequate implementation-guiding documents, thus affecting their business results. The remission of the retrospectively-collected taxes and fines due to the above-said causes shall be considered on a case-by-case basis.

f/ Business households that owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts but the individuals with their names registered for such households� business have deceased without anyone else to carry on the business, hence, no one to repay debts; business households that owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts, have moved to other places and the debt payers can not be identified.

Article 2.- Competence to reschedule, freeze and/or forgive tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget:

1. The Ministry of Finance shall consider and decide on debt rescheduling, freezing and/or remission, and investment capital support for the cases prescribed in Article 1 (except for Clause 4f) of this Decision.

2. The General Department of Customs shall coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in considering and deciding the handling of tax debts for import/export goods according to this Decision.

3. The People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall consider and decide on the remission of tax debts and/or other State budget amounts for business households in their respective localities according to the provisions of Clause 4f, Article 1 of this Decision.

Article 3.- Implementation organization

1. For subjects that have their debts already frozen under the Prime Minister�s Directive No. 790/TTg of October 26, 1996 and the documents guiding the implementation thereof, but still owe debts to the State budget, the specific causes and cases of outstanding debts shall be determined in order to handle them according to the provisions of this Decision.

2. This Decision�s provisions on the rescheduling, freezing and/or remission of tax debts and/or other State budget amounts shall not apply to the following cases:

a/ Enterprises and production and/or business establishments that have their tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget to be handled according to Article 1 of this Decision but breach law provisions or the competent bodies have not yet made any conclusions thereon.

b/ Enterprises whose tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget are being considered for handling under the Prime Minister�s Decision No. 95/1998/QD-TTg of May 18, 1998 and Decision No. 05/2000/QD-TTg of January 5, 2000 on the settlement of debts shall not have their tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget rescheduled, frozen and/or forgiven according to this Decision.

3. The Ministry of Finance, the General Depart-ment of Customs and the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to examine and determine subjects that owe tax debts and/or other State budget amounts in order to handle them according to their respective competence and the provisions of this Decision.

4. Not to impose fines on deferred payment of tax amounts and/or other State budget amounts which are rescheduled, frozen and/or forgiven during the rescheduling, freezing and/or remission period.

5. The Minister of Finance, the General Director of Customs and the presidents of the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall bear responsibility before the Prime Minister for the deployment of implementation of this Decision.

The Minister of Finance shall have to sum up and report to the Prime Minister the results of the rescheduling, freezing and/or remission of tax debts and/or other amounts payable to the State budget according to this Decision.

Article 4.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

The Minister of Finance shall have to guide the implementation of this Decision.

The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision.

Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI