Circular No. 20/2021/TT-BCT amends and supplements certain provisions of Circular No. 27/2020/TT-BCT dated September 30, 2020, issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade, concerning the content, procedures, and processes for conducting inspections, handling administrative violations, and implementing business measures by the Market Management Force.

CIRCULAR

Amending and supplementing certain Articles of Circular No. 27/2020/TT-BCT dated September 30, 2020 issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade on the contents, procedures, and formalities for inspection activities, administrative violation handling, and implementation of business measures by market management forcescontents, procedures, and processes for conducting inspections, handling administrative violations, and implementing operational measures by the Market Management force

Pursuant to the Law on Handling Administrative Violations dated June 20, 2012; the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations dated November 13, 2020;

Pursuant to the Market Management Law dated March 8, 2016;

Decree No. 98/2017/ND-CP August 18, 2017, issued by the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade;

Pursuant to Decree No. 148/2016/ND-CP dated November 4, 2016, issued by the Government detailing the implementation of certain provisions of the Market Management Law; Decree No. 78/2019/ND-CP dated October 14, 2019, issued by the Government amending and supplementing certain provisions of Decree No. 148/2016/ND-CP dated November 4, 2016, issued by the Government detailing the implementation of certain provisions of the Market Management Law;

Pursuant to Decision No. 34/2018/QD-TTg dated August 10, 2018, issued by the Prime Minister stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Market Management General Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade;

At the proposal of the Director of the Market Management General Department;

The Minister of Industry and Trade issues this Circular amending and supplementing certain Articles of Circular No. 27/2020/TT-BCT dated September 30, 2020, issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade on the contents, procedures, and formalities for inspection activities, administrative violation handling, and implementation of business measures by market management forces.

Article 1. Amending and supplementing certain provisions of Circular number 27/2020/TT-BCT dated September 30, 2020, issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade on the contents, procedures, and formalities for inspection activities, administrative violation handling, and implementation of business measures by market management forces

1. Amend and supplement Clause 2 Article 14 as follows:

“2. Directly or delegate civil servants responsible for managing the work diary of the market management agency to record clearly the number, code, issuance date of the inspection decision; the name, position of the person issuing the inspection decision; the name, civil servant identification number (if applicable) of the inspection team members; the name and address of the inspected organization, individual, or production and business establishment; the inspection contents and deadlines into the work diary before implementing the inspection decision.”

2. Amend and supplement some Points and Clauses of Article 18 as follows:

a) Amend Point b Clause 2 as follows:

“b) In cases where all inspection contents reveal administrative violations or there are inspection contents revealing administrative violations and not falling within the scope prescribed in Point c Clause 2 of this Article, after the inspection team has recorded the inspection results in the inspection report, the Head of the Inspection Team shall prepare an administrative violation report or issue an administrative penalty decision without preparing a report if it falls within the scope of warning penalties or fines up to VND 250,000 for individuals and VND 500,000 for organizations for discovered administrative violations according to the laws on administrative violation handling, except for cases prescribed in Clause 4 of Article 13 of this Circular;”

b) Amend point b of Clause 3 as follows:

“b) In cases where the inspected organization or individual or their representative refuses to sign the inspection report, the inspection report must have the signature of a representative of the People's Committee of the commune or a representative of the police station of the commune where the inspection takes place or at least one witness confirming that the inspected organization or individual or their representative did not sign the inspection report and recording the reason for refusal in the report.”

3. Amend Clause 2 of Article 19 as follows:

“2. Except in cases where the Head of the Inspection Team is also the issuer of the inspection decision, within 24 hours from the end of the preparation of the inspection report, the Head of the Inspection Team must submit a written report and propose handling of the inspection results along with the case file to the issuer of the inspection decision for handling the inspection results according to the provisions of Clause 3 of this Article. For cases where an administrative violation report has been prepared according to Point b Clause 2 of Article 18 of this Circular, the reporting and proposing handling of the administrative violation case must be done immediately after the preparation of the administrative violation report.”

4. Amend the opening clause of Article 20 as follows:

“1. Except in cases of inspections requested by authorized persons as prescribed in Clause 4 of Article 13 of this Circular, immediately after the completion of verification and investigation, the issuer of the inspection decision must conclude the case and handle it as follows:”

5. Amend and supplement the opening clause of Article 22 as follows:

“1. For cases where an administrative violation report has been prepared according to Point b Clause 2 of Article 18 or Paragraph 2 Clause 4 of Article 19 or Article 20 of this Circular but are outside the authority to impose penalties of the market management force, within 24 hours from the preparation of the administrative violation report, the market management agency of the person who issued the inspection decision or currently handling the case must:”

6. Amend and supplement Article 24 as follows:

“Article 24Procedures for internal reporting of administrative violation cases within the market management agency

1. Except in cases prescribed in Point a Clause 1 of Article 25 of this Circular, for cases exceeding the authority to impose administrative penalties, the head of the market management agency currently handling the administrative violation case has the responsibility:

a) Within 24 hours from the preparation of the administrative violation report, submit a written report on the administrative violation case file to the head of the higher-level market management agency with the authority to impose administrative penalties for consideration and issuance of a penalty decision according to their authority.

In cases where the administrative violation exceeds the authority to impose administrative penalties of the head of the higher-level market management agency, immediately after the preparation of the administrative violation report, transfer the administrative violation case file to the higher-level market management agency for submission to the General Director within 24 hours from the preparation of the administrative violation report;

b) Transfer the complete administrative violation case file and prepare a handover receipt between the transferring party and the receiving party.

c) Continue to preserve the evidence and means that have been temporarily seized (if any) when transferring the administrative violation case, except where a higher-level Market Management agency has other requirements.

2. Within the time limit prescribed by law on administrative penalty, the head of the Market Management agency authorized to impose administrative penalties or the deputy assigned the authority to impose administrative penalties shall be responsible for:

a) Considering and deciding on the imposition of administrative penalties within their authority;

b) Issuing a written request to lower-level Market Management agencies or market management officials to conduct verification of the circumstances of the administrative violation case to serve as the basis for issuing a decision on administrative penalties as prescribed by law on administrative penalties in cases where there are not sufficient grounds for issuing a decision on administrative penalties. The verification of the circumstances of the administrative violation case must be documented in writing.”

7. Amend and supplement some points and clauses of Article 25 as follows:

a) Amend point b Clause 2 of Article 25 as follows:

“b) Transfer the case file immediately after establishing the administrative violation record to the directly superior Bureau for examination and submission to the Chairman of the People's Committee at the provincial level in cases where the case specified in point a Clause 1 of this Article exceeds the authority to impose penalties of the Chairman of the People's Committee at the district level.”

b) Supplement clause 5 after clause 4 as follows:

“5. The time limit for submitting and the case files, documents of the administrative violation case to be submitted to the Chairman of the People's Committee with the authority to impose penalties shall be implemented according to the provisions of Clause 5 of Article 58 of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations.”

8. Amend and supplement the opening clause of Clause 2 of Article 29 as follows:

“2. Proposals for inspection as provided for in Clause 1 of this Article shall be reflected in the report on the results of implementing business measures or reports on performing inspection tasks and handling administrative violations by market management officials or proposal documents for inspection and must include the following main contents:”

9. Amend point h Clause 2 of Article 30 as follows:

          “h) Estimate the number and composition of persons participating in implementing the inspection decision, including: market management officials assigned the responsibility to organize and direct the inspection; other market management officials performing tasks according to the division of labor and direction of the person assigned the responsibility to organize and direct the inspection and organizations, entities, individuals participating in coordination (if any);”

10. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 32 as follows:

“2. The person assigned the responsibility to organize and direct the inspection, the person issuing the inspection decision, and the head of the Market Management agency involved shall implement the handling of the results of the inspection, the results of review and verification of the inspection case; transfer, receive, submit the case file of the administrative violation case for administrative penalty; establish, amend, store the case file of the administrative violation case and maintain confidentiality of information similar to the activities of inspection as stipulated in Articles 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 of this Circular.”

11. Amend and supplement Clause 1 of Article 33 as follows:

“1. The Head of the Inspection Team,market management official performing official duties apply according to their authority or propose the competent authority to decide on applying measures to temporarily seize evidence, means, licenses, certificates of practice according to administrative procedures, temporarily detain a person according to administrative procedures, escort a violator when there is a basis prescribed in the Law on Handling Administrative Violations. The proposal is 1. The economic and technical standards prescribed in this Circular are the maximum levels, ensuring accurate and sufficient costs to complete the provision of public services according to quality criteria and standards. made in writing or recorded in the content of the inspection record, inspection report.

Article 2. Supplement, replace, and abolish certain words, phrases, clauses of Circular No. 27/2020/TT-BCT dated September 30, 2020, issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade, regarding the content, procedures, and processes for conducting administrative inspection activities, handling administrative violations, and implementing business measures of the Market Management Force.

1. Supplement certain phrases in the following Articles, Clauses, and Points:

a) Supplement the phrase “or delegate to the deputy to assign” after the phrase “Assign” in Point b Clause 2 Article 9;

b) Supplement the phrase “or the deputy delegated authority” before the phrase “must examine and handle” in the opening paragraph of Article 10;

c) Supplement the phrase “or the deputy delegated authority” after the phrase “decide to inspect” in Clause 1 Article 11 and Point a Clause 3 Article 36;

d) Supplement the phrase “or the deputy delegated authority” after the phrase “head of the market management agency or unit” in Clause 5 and Point a Clause 6 Article 35.

2. Replace the phrase “3. The person issuing the inspection plan is responsible for directing and supervising the implementation of the inspection plan by the Inspection Team.” with the phrase “4. The person issuing the inspection plan is responsible for directing and supervising the implementation of the inspection plan by the Inspection Team.” in Article 12.

3. Abolish Clause 3 Article 3.

This Circular takes effect from December 25, 2025/.

The Heads of the Ministry’s Office, the Inspector General of the Ministry, the Head of the Legal Department, the Director of the General Department of Market Management, the Heads of subordinate units under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, market management agencies at all levels, and related organizations and individuals are responsible for implementing this Circular.

Article 4. Implementation provisions

This Circular takes effect from February 1, 2022./.