New guidance on issuance of Land use right certificate

On 30 June 2021, MONRE issued Circular 09/2021, amending some regulations on issuance of land use right certificate (LURC). Key takeaways from Circular 09/2021 are as follows:

· Circular 09/2021 provides a new case where the land user will be issued with a brand new LURC. In particular, if a master LURC covers multiple land parcels, then when the land user conducts the registration of changes to land due to land division, the divided land will be issued with a separate LURC (Article 1.2 of Circular 09/2021). Previously, Circular 23/2014 only contemplates the case that the divided land is issued with separate LURC when there is division of single land parcel into several separate land parcels; and

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Written by Lawyers VNLaw On In

IMPORTING LNG FOR LNG POWER PLANT

1. Pursuant to Article 6 of Decree 87 of the Government dated 13 March 2018 on gas trading (Decree 87), an entity involving in the import of LNG for trading in Vietnam needs to obtain a certificate on satisfaction of conditions applicable to LNG importing/exporting merchant (Import Certificate) from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) before doing such activity.

2. The requirements of Decree 87/2018 seem to be drafted with entities importing LNG to trade in Vietnam in mind, but not for own consumption purpose, for example, a LNG power plant (LNG Power Plant) imports LNG to turn it into power. That said, if the LNG Power Plant imports LNG for own consumption purpose, it is advisable to apply for the Import Certificate because (i) there are no specific regulations guiding how to import LNG for own consumption purpose and (ii) the conditions to issue the Import Certificate set out in Decree 87/2018 mainly focus to ensure the safety of the LNG import activities.

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Deferred payment foreign loan

Under Circular 03 of the State Bank dated 26 February 2016 on foreign exchange control of foreign loan and repayment by enterprises, as amended (Circular 03/2016), import of goods with deferred payment is one of forms of foreign loan (“deferred payment foreign loan”).

Definition

Deferred payment foreign loan is defined as the import of goods for which the first drawdown date is prior to the final payment date, in which,

· The drawdown date is (i) 45th day from the checking completion date of recorded on the customs declaration if the bill of lading is not required by the bank of borrower; or (ii) 90th day from the issuance date of bill of lading if the bill of lading is required by the bank of borrower.

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Applicability of Vietnam Anti-Money Laundering Law (AML) to offshore financial institutions

Under the AML Law 2012, an entity will be subject to the requirement to conduct KYC or submit AML reports to the SBV if it is, among others, a finance organisation which is “licensed” to conduct one or more financial services or activities. It is not clear from the AML Law 2012 and its implementing regulations if the term “licenced” above refers to the finance organisations licensed by an authority of Vietnam or also includes foreign finance organisation licensed by a foreign authority. However, it should be reasonable to take the first interpretation because:

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In