Banking & Finance

Tax authorities extended the payment time for land tax payments to 89,635 taxpayers at the end of July, totaling VND57.6 trillion ($2.5 billion).

The State Bank of Vietnam has issued Circular No. 11/2021/TT-NHNN on the classification of assets and provision for risks, the use of provisions to deal with risks in the operations of credit institutions, and spending by foreign bank branches. Under the Circular, after five years, debts that have been settled by all measures but cannot be recovered will be removed from the off-balance sheet (OBS).

Just over 100,000 new domestic individual stock market accounts were opened during July; the lowest in the last five months. The reason for the decline may be that individual investors no longer need to open new accounts at small securities companies.

Covid-19 has had an impact on bank loans, with a number of regulations from the State Bank of Vietnam relating to debt structure no longer being appropriate. Banks have therefore made a number of proposals and recommendations to address the problems they face.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has proposed four solutions to support businesses and individuals during these tough times, including tax exemptions and reductions costing VND20 trillion ($874.66 million) and cuts to land rentals. Experts, however, believe this is not enough and that more is needed but that existing support should continue.

Vietnam’s stock market remains in the accumulation phase and there may be some corrections. The short-term trend is still positive, so short-term investors will be able to take advantage of these corrections to increase their holdings and buy new stocks.