Directive No. 183/TTg on the Implementation of the Business Registration Charter for Commerce, Industry, and Services in the Collective and Individual Economic Sector

DIRECTIVE

OF THE PRIME MINISTER NO. 183/TTG JUNE 5

1980 ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATIONS ON BUSINESS REGISTRATION FOR COMMERCIAL AND SERVICE ACTIVITIES IN THE COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL ECONOMIC SECTORS

The Council of Ministers issued Decree No. 119-CP on April 9, 1980, promulgating the Regulations on Business Registration for commercial and service activities applicable to the collective and individual economic sectors. To guide and organize the implementation of this important decree, the Prime Minister requests that all relevant departments and levels perform the following tasks:

1. Carefully organize the declaration registration process.

Organizing the declaration registration for commercial and service activities essentially involves conducting a basic survey of these activities in the collective and individual economic sectors to fully understand and accurately grasp the actual situation and production capacity of such activities within these sectors, thereby facilitating the issuance of business licenses and ensuring management and guidance in accordance with laws, policies, and plans.

In the declaration registration process, attention should be paid to:

Widely publicize and explain the purpose and significance of declaration registration to cadres and the people, making those engaged in commercial and service activities clearly aware of their rights and obligations to register their businesses; encourage everyone to declare their activities and production capacities truthfully to the State, while also combating those who evade registration or provide false declarations.

Guidance should be provided to production and business units to declare and apply for registration according to the contents specified in the regulations and using unified forms. For small-scale production and business establishments, the declaration process should be simplified; for complex and large-scale establishments, detailed information necessary for each type of industry and scale of operation must be fully declared. Close coordination between encouraging self-declaration from producers and traders and relying on grassroots cadres to verify additional information and confirm the contents of declarations, along with research conducted by economic management agencies and household registration offices at various levels, is essential to ensure a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the situation.

Upon completion of the declaration phase, the People's Committee of the commune (or equivalent level) must compile the operational status and production capacity of each commune, ward, or sub-district, and record certification (and comments if necessary) on each declaration form before transferring them to the district, county, or town-level committees for review and issuance of business licenses.

2. Effectively direct the examination and issuance of business licenses.

Issuing business licenses aims to ensure that production and business activities in the collective and individual sectors follow the correct socialist transformation and construction policies of the Party and State, aligning with the development direction of each industry and conforming to national planning and zoning.

Central management agencies such as the Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Internal Trade, Foodstuffs, Transportation, Construction, Industry, Culture and Information, Health, etc., need to issue Circulars guiding local People's Committees and sectoral management agencies on the policy and direction for examining and issuing business licenses, specifying which types of establishments will be granted licenses and which will not. To achieve consistency in policy, by June 1980, the ministries managing commercial and industrial activities should submit draft circulars guiding their respective sectors to the Ministry of Finance for consolidation and submission to the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers for approval before sending them to provinces and cities for implementation.

Provincial, municipal, and centrally-administered special city People's Committees, following the guidance of ministries and general administrations and based on specific local conditions, need to develop concrete plans to guide their own People's Committees and business registration review councils at the county level in the examination and issuance of business licenses. For establishments that are not eligible for business licenses, assistance should be provided to help them shift to other industries and professions in line with Party and Government policies.

To ensure that establishments can confidently develop their production and business activities, after submitting their declaration forms, the People's Committee of the district, county, or town must respond to each establishment regarding whether they have been granted permission to register their business within the longest period of three months.

Throughout the declaration and license issuance processes, it is necessary to strengthen state management and supervision over commercial and service activities in the collective and individual sectors.

All production and business establishments not subject to State prohibitions or restrictions may continue operating in the declared industries and activities. Those individuals or units violating the registration system and discipline shall be dealt with appropriately according to the declaration registration regulations.

Under the centralized and unified guidance of the same-level People's Committee, economic management agencies at provincial, municipal, and county levels must base their actions on the information they have gathered about the activities of developing production and business entities, promoting activities in the right direction while restricting or prohibiting those activities detrimental to the economy, in accordance with the decisions of the Council of Ministers.

The finance sector must intensify tax collection efforts for commercial and service activities, ensuring full and correct tax collection in accordance with policy, actively contributing to the restructuring and organization of production, strengthening market management, and combating illegal business operations, speculation, smuggling, and counterfeit goods.

4. Regarding guidance and implementation organization.

The finance sector must intensify tax collection for commercial and industrial activities, ensuring that taxes are collected in full and in accordance with policy, contributing positively to the restructuring and reorganization of production, strengthening market management, and combating illegal business activities, speculation, smuggling, and the production of counterfeit goods.

4. Regarding guidance and implementation organization.

The business registration work is very complex, involving the entire collective and individual economic sector where state management has been lax. All sectors and levels must implement this work from the grassroots level of communes, wards, and townships within a certain period while being busy with many important tasks. Therefore, leadership and direction must be focused and unified. All sectors and levels must closely cooperate to complete all preparatory work in June 1980 to finish the entire business registration work in the fourth quarter of 1980 in two steps as follows:

- The declaration phase will last about one month, starting from July 1, 1980;

- The phase for issuing business licenses will last about three months, starting from August 1980;

The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the General Statistics Office, and other Ministries and General Departments managing economic and technical sectors must have dedicated units for business registration work and plans to mobilize the necessary staff to assist localities, particularly key areas, to guide and draw general lessons.

People's Committees of provinces, cities, and centrally governed municipalities need to immediately establish permanent units to assist the steering committee in business registration work and simultaneously set up review boards for business registration at districts, counties, and wards. All levels need to mobilize the machinery of tax, commerce, public security, statistics departments, concentrate related departmental staff, and may mobilize additional students, teachers, and university students during summer breaks to help counties and communes, wards in the following tasks:

- Organizing declarations for registration,

- Summarizing the situation of declarations for registration in communes, wards, and townships, and in districts, counties, and wards,

- Reviewing and issuing business licenses.

All staff members mobilized for business registration work, especially at county and commune levels, must be carefully selected and trained on policies, professional skills, and working methods. Special attention must be paid to educating staff involved in business registration work on integrity and honesty during the organization of declarations, being highly vigilant against deceptive tactics and bribery attempts by dishonest traders, while also preventing, stopping, and strictly handling cases of bribery and accepting bribes.

Upon receipt of this Directive, the Ministry of Finance, relevant Ministries and General Departments, central agencies managing related economic sectors, and People's Committees at all levels must thoroughly study and promptly develop implementation plans to ensure compliance with both the content requirements and the specified timeframes.