New value limits on cars for officials

High-ranking employees of state-owned enterprises will face new restrictions on the types of vehicles they can use starting March 1.

These new rules came in the form of a circular by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, which aims to tighten control over spending on public cars.

The regulations stipulate that chairmen of the Members Councils as well as general directors of state-owned economic groups, which were set up under the prime minister’s decisions, could travel for business purposes by cars costing a maximum of VND840 million (USD42,000) each.

The regular members of the Members Councils, as well as deputy general directors have a new price cap on the cars they drive set at VND720 million (USD36,000) each.

The same price cap of VND720 million has been set for the officials of the same rank, who are part of Members Councils and corporations that have been set up under ministerial and provincial decisions.

Single vehicles that serve business operations of wholly state-owned companies cannot exceed a value of VND720 million (USD36,000), or VND1.04 billion (USD52,000) for two.

The Ministry of Finance’s Department for Public Assets Management had requested a moratorium on the buying of certain public vehicles beginning last December. This suspension includes passenger vehicles with up to 16 seats and specialised vehicles - such as fire fighting trucks - that are purchased with state funds.