“The Ministry of Justice Denies Raising Fines for Administrative Violations”

During the 9th session, the Government submitted to the National Assembly the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations. The National Assembly also discussed this content in groups. Among the issues, the level of administrative sanctions has attracted great attention from the people.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Ho Quang Huy, Director of the Department of Inspection of Legal Documents and Management of Administrative Violation Handling (Ministry of Justice), said that during the process of studying and drafting the Law, the results of synthesizing opinions showed that there were proposals to consider adjusting the increase in the level of fines when the current fine level in some fields is no longer sufficient to deter, not commensurate with the nature and extent of the violation, and the socio-economic development.

However, after a thorough review, absorbing comments, reviewing and comprehensively assessing the scope of Law amendment this time, the drafting agency has advised and reported to the Government to clearly define the view and scope of amendment, which is not to adjust the contents that may directly affect human rights and citizens’ rights – including the issue of increasing administrative sanctions.

“This is a very sensitive issue, directly affecting the lives of people and businesses, so it needs to be carefully considered and fully and comprehensively assessed of impacts,” said Mr. Huy.

Therefore, the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly this time does not propose to adjust the increase in the maximum fine level for any field of state management specified in Article 24 of the current Law on Handling Administrative Violations.

This time, the draft Law only reviews and supplements some new fields that are not yet specified in the Law to meet the requirements of state management in the new situation. For example, supplementing fields such as: Personal data protection, digital industry and technology, integrated management of marine resources and environment, to create a legal basis for transparent and synchronous handling of violations in these fields.

According to Mr. Ho Quang Huy, proposals related to the increase of fines will continue to be studied, practical summing up and submitted to the National Assembly for consideration when comprehensively amending the Law on Handling Administrative Violations, on condition that the impact assessment is fully assured in the coming time.

Regarding the handling of administrative violations without making a record of administrative violations, Mr. Huy said that this is not a new regulation. Accordingly, the regulation has been inherited stably since the period of the Ordinance on Handling Administrative Violations and continues to be maintained in Article 56 of the current Law on Handling Administrative Violations.

The purpose of this regulation is to quickly handle clear and less serious violations, while reducing administrative procedure pressure, contributing to improving the efficiency of law enforcement.

This time, the draft Law does not expand the scope of application, but only proposes a very limited adjustment from VND 250,000 (actual fine level) for individuals to VND 1,000,000 (maximum level of the frame) for individuals; and for organizations, double in case of non-record fines.

According to Mr. Huy, the adjustment level is to suit the current socio-economic conditions, when the income and spending level of the people has changed significantly compared to the time of issuance of the previous regulations.

At the same time, in the process of building the draft Law, the drafting agency has reviewed the decrees on sanctioning administrative violations in the fields of state management, there are very few acts of violation with a fine level of VND 250,000 for individuals. This shows that the current regulation is somewhat outdated compared to the reality of management and no longer has much practical value.

At the same time, non-record fines must still comply with the full legal process, there must be a sanctioning decision, archive management, clear basis… The sanctioned person is still guaranteed the right to complain, request information provision or reflection if there is any error.

According to Mr. Ho Quang Huy, this is not a relaxation of legal responsibility or narrowing of citizens’ rights, but a reasonable technical adjustment, suitable to reality, making the process of handling administrative violations more flexible, saving resources but still ensuring publicity, transparency and legality.