Circular No. 209/2010/TT-BTC on electronic transactions in the operations of the State Treasury (ST)

CIRCULAR

Regulations on electronic transactions in the operational activities of State Treasury

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Pursuant to the Law on Electronic Transactions No. 51/2005/QH11 dated November 29, 2005;

Based on Decree No. 26/2007/NĐ-CP dated February 15, 2007 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Law on Electronic Transactions regarding digital signatures and digital signature certification services;

Pursuant to Decree No. 27/2007/NĐ-CP dated February 23, 2007 of the Government on electronic transactions in financial activities;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 118/2008/NĐ-CP dated November 27, 2008 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Based on Circular No. 78/2008/TT-BTC dated November 24, 2008 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of certain contents of Decree No. 27/2007/NĐ-CP dated February 23, 2007 of the Government on electronic transactions in financial operations;

The Ministry of Finance guides the implementation of electronic transactions in the operational activities of the State Treasury as follows:

This technical regulation sets out technical requirements, testing methods, sampling procedures; management requirements; responsibilities of organizations and individuals producing, trading, and importing cigarettes.

Article 1. Scope and Applicability

1. Recipients

This Circular applies to agencies, organizations, and individuals choosing to use or provide services related to electronic transactions (ET) in the operational activities of the State Treasury (ST), ST units meeting the conditions to implement ETs.

2. Scope of Application:

- Activities of ET within the ST system;

- Electronic payment activities between ST and banks;

- Electronic data exchange activities concerning budget revenue and expenditure between ST and tax authorities, customs, finance departments;

- Electronic data exchange activities concerning budget revenue and expenditure, budget allocation, capital plans, management information codes between state management agencies and ST;

- Activities of collecting and disbursing state budget revenues and payments between ST and agencies, units, organizations, and individuals choosing to participate in ETs and meeting all conditions stipulated by the Law on Electronic Transactions and guiding documents.

In this Circular, the following terms are understood as follows:

Terms used in this Circular shall be understood according to their meanings explained in the Law on Electronic Transactions and Decree No. 27/2007/NĐ-CP of the Government on ET in financial activities. In this Circular, some terms are understood as follows:

1. Electronic vouchers in the operational activities of ST are information created, sent, received, and stored electronically in ST operations. Electronic vouchers in ST operations are a form of data message containing exchanges and transactions about finance and currency, including: electronic accounting vouchers; electronic budget revenue and expenditure vouchers; electronic payment vouchers, electronic accounting books, financial reports, budget revenue and expenditure reports, final accounts reports, and other types of electronic vouchers in ST transaction activities as prescribed by law.

2. Electronic documents are documents and materials expressed in the form of data messages (excluding electronic vouchers defined in Clause 1 of Article 1 above).

3. Operational activities of ST specified in this Circular include activities related to budget revenue and expenditure, management of state budget funds, financial funds, management of ST cash reserves, payment activities between ST and agencies, organizations, and individuals, and between units within the ST system, and other activities as prescribed.

Article 3. Principles of ET in the operational activities of ST:

1. For state agencies, when participating in ET in the operational activities of ST, they must comply with the principles of clarity, fairness, honesty, security, efficiency, consistent with Article 5 of the Law on Electronic Transactions No. 51/2005/QH11, and ensure requirements for operational procedures and technical standards in ET as prescribed by ST.

2. For organizations and individuals involved in ET with ST:

- Voluntarily choose to use electronic means to conduct transactions;

- Use appropriate information technology to conduct ET with ST; have the necessary technical conditions to participate in ET, or conduct through service providers of ET as prescribed;

- Organizations and individuals have the right to choose the method of transacting with ST when ST simultaneously accepts traditional transactions and electronic transactions.

3. ST may proactively implement partial or full transactions electronically within ST and between ST and agencies, organizations, and individuals.

Article 4. Conditions for agencies, organizations, and individuals to participate in electronic transactions with the State Treasury (KBNN) in their professional activities:

1. For organizations providing public digital signature verification services or dedicated ones:

Meeting the conditions to operate in the business registration field according to the provisions of the law, ensuring the conditions stipulated in Article 13 and Article 45 of Decree No. 26/2007/NĐ-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of the Law on Electronic Transactions regarding digital signatures and digital signature verification services;

2. For agencies, organizations, and individuals:

When participating in electronic transactions with the State Treasury (KBNN), agencies, organizations, and individuals must comply with specific regulations of the Ministry of Finance and guidance from the State Treasury (KBNN) concerning:

a) The format and forms of data messages, in accordance with technical requirements of the State Treasury (KBNN) for each type of transaction;

b) Types of digital signatures and digital signature verification when electronic transactions require digital signatures and digital signature verification;

c) Procedures to ensure the integrity, security, and confidentiality of electronic transactions.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

Article 5. Professional activities of the State Treasury (KBNN) applying electronic transaction forms:

The State Treasury (KBNN) bases its decision on actual needs, characteristics of various types of transactions in its professional activities, and the ability to meet technical standards to determine the appropriate electronic transaction method for the following types of transactions:

1. Electronic transactions within the State Treasury (KBNN) system including:

- Electronic payments within the State Treasury (KBNN);

- Transmission and receipt of data on budget revenues, expenditures, and balances, and other data related to state budget management and State Treasury (KBNN) operations;

- Transmission and receipt of data on budget estimates, capital plans, and capital transfers;

- Transmission and receipt of data on budget management information (budget management code systems);

- Transmission and receipt of data on principal, interest, and issuance fees for government bonds;

- Transmission and receipt of data on operational reports and final accounts;

- Transmission and receipt of emails through the internal email system of the State Treasury (KBNN);

- Transmission and receipt of data on regulatory documents and other operational documents.

2. Electronic transactions between the State Treasury (KBNN) and the banking system, including:

- Bilateral electronic payments;

- Inter-bank electronic payments and electronic clearing payments.

- Exchange of data on state budget revenues and expenditures.

3. Electronic transactions between the State Treasury (KBNN) and financial sector agencies:

- Exchange of data on state budget revenues with tax, customs, and finance agencies; taxpayer information; tax revenue and refund reports;

- Exchange of data on budget estimate audit documents of finance agencies, budget allocation notifications, state budget expenditure orders, finance agency budget estimate reviews, annual final account reports;

- Exchange of data on state budget revenues and expenditures with finance agencies.

4. Electronic transactions between the State Treasury (KBNN) and budget payment agencies, organizations, and individuals with payment relationships with the State Treasury (KBNN):

- Exchange of data on budget allocations, state budget expenditure orders, budget payments, and settlements with budget-using agencies and units;

- Processing data on budget spending procedures and conditions: budget commitments, economic contracts, invoices, payment vouchers, payment schedules, advance payments;

- Receiving, processing, and transmitting electronic documents on state budget revenues and expenditures prepared by units (documents for depositing money into the state budget, budget withdrawal requests, investment fund withdrawal requests, advance payment request documents, etc.);

- Receiving, processing, and transmitting electronic documents on state budget revenues exchanged between the State Treasury (KBNN) and state revenue payers, revenue collection agencies, and authorized revenue collection agencies.

Article 6. Conditions for electronic vouchers:

1. Main contents of electronic vouchers in KBNN activities:

a) Name and figures of the voucher;

b) Date of issuance and receipt of the voucher;

c) Name and address of the organization or individual issuing the voucher;

d) Name and address of the organization or individual receiving the voucher;

đ) Content of the business transaction;

e) Signature, full name of the person issuing, controlling, approving the voucher and other persons related to the voucher as prescribed by law.

2. Contents of electronic vouchers in budget revenue and expenditure accounting transactions and payments must also comply with the provisions of Article 17 of the Accounting Law and the regulations of the Ministry of Finance on accounting vouchers in KBNN operations.

3. In addition to the contents prescribed in paragraph 6.1, Article 6 above, electronic vouchers must include additional contents according to each type of business transaction, as required by KBNN.

Article 7. Provisions on handling electronic vouchers and documents:

1. Electronic vouchers:

- Electronic vouchers must be established in accordance with the format, model, and data structure specified in specific documents issued by the Ministry of Finance and KBNN;

- For paper vouchers used in traditional business processes that are required by law to have seals or signatures of authorized persons, when using the electronic payment method, they must be certified by an authorized organization confirming that the organizations or individuals participating in the electronic payment are the signatories of the digital signature;

- For internal verification systems of KBNN that have been implemented but not yet using digital signature certification services, such systems shall not be expanded but maintained as they are, while gradually transitioning towards applying public or specialized verification systems;

- In cases of electronic payments with banks, the use and certification of digital signatures shall be carried out in accordance with the State Bank's regulations on electronic payments in the banking sector;

- The issuer, controller, approver, and other participants in the process of handling electronic vouchers shall be responsible for the contents assigned to them during the processing of the vouchers;

- The storage of electronic vouchers shall be conducted in accordance with the retention period prescribed by law for paper vouchers. If an electronic voucher has expired its retention period but is still relevant to the integrity of information in the system and currently circulating electronic vouchers, it shall continue to be stored until its complete destruction does not affect other electronic transactions, at which point it may be destroyed.

2. Electronic documents:

- Documents established, transmitted, and received in the form of electronic data through application programs permitted and recognized by the Government, the Ministry of Finance (or agencies authorized by the Ministry of Finance), or certified by specialized (or public) digital signature certification organizations, meeting technical standards, shall have legal equivalence to paper documents. For electronic documents that do not meet these conditions, the information contained therein shall only serve as reference;

- Paper documents converted from electronic documents used as legal bases for transactions must clearly indicate the name and signature of the person responsible for converting the electronic document to a paper document and stamped by the participating organization (if applicable).

Article 8. Organization of vocational training activities for state budget management:

1. Vocational training within the State Budget Management Agency (KBNN):

- Electronic transactions within the KBNN system shall be carried out according to the application program approved by the Ministry of Finance. The KBNN shall establish an information security system for each transaction, requiring digital signatures to be verified according to the technical procedures approved by the Ministry of Finance. Accounting processing and payment procedures shall be implemented in accordance with current regulations for specific types of transactions.

- The General Director of the KBNN shall decide on the types of documents that must be printed and managed, stored in paper form for electronic payments.

- The creation and conversion of electronic documents from paper documents and vice versa shall be carried out in accordance with the current regulations of the Government on electronic transactions.

- Reporting and settlement forms conducted through electronic transactions include accounting reports, settlement reports, statistical reports.

For types of reports required to be sent to relevant agencies, if the KBNN has established a data transmission system for these agencies, there is no need to send paper reports. The KBNN shall be responsible for the accuracy and truthfulness of the information transmitted electronically.

- Information storage formats (electronic data, paper) for each type of report: mandatory information to be stored on paper includes information about completed project settlements, information about annual state budget settlements.

- In addition to the above contents, based on specific operational activities, the KBNN may decide to store information exclusively in electronic format.

2. Electronic transactions in payments between the KBNN and the banking system:

- Data exchange, payments, and electronic money transfers between the KBNN and the banking system and credit organizations shall be carried out in accordance with current regulations on electronic transactions in banking operations under Decree No. 35/2007/NĐ-CP dated March 8, 2007 of the Government and guiding documents of the State Bank.

- The KBNN shall cooperate with banks involved in electronic payments to build technical infrastructure systems ensuring compatibility between systems, solutions to ensure safety, accuracy, and confidentiality in electronic payment relationships.

- The KBNN and banks shall develop a unified data processing procedure, agree on solutions for verifying digital signatures within internal systems to implement routine electronic transactions. The KBNN and banks shall specifically agree on certain special electronic payment transactions that require public digital signature verification.

- The KBNN, tax authority, customs, using the application program approved by the Ministry of Finance for data exchange, transmitting, receiving tax collection information with the banking system, must implement technical measures to ensure the security, integrity, accuracy, and timeliness of the information. Information exchanged between financial sector units and the banking system must be verified with digital signatures from specialized or public certification organizations.

3. Electronic transactions during the process of budget preparation, implementation, and settlement between the KBNN and financial sector agencies:

- Electronic data exchange between state agencies, financial sector agencies (financial agencies, tax, customs), and the KBNN regarding budget estimates, capital plans shall be carried out according to the application programs approved and permitted for use by the Ministry of Finance.

Relevant agencies shall base their decisions on printing documents, files, signing, stamping for circulation and storage on current management, monitoring, and archival needs.

- For tax, customs, and finance agencies, when using the application program approved by the Ministry of Finance for data exchange, transmitting, receiving tax collection information, they must implement technical measures to ensure the security, integrity, accuracy, and timeliness of the information. Encouragement is given to the use of digital signatures in information exchange between financial sector systems.

4. Electronic transactions between the KBNN and organizations that are budget users, service providers, and individuals related to the KBNN in revenue and expenditure activities of the state budget and payment relationships:

- The KBNN shall base its conditions for technical infrastructure and electronic transaction processing procedures approved by the Ministry of Finance to deploy electronic transactions at KBNN units according to appropriate schedules.

- Fields applying electronic transactions: state budget revenue and financial obligations to the state budget, budget allocation, regular expenditures from the state budget, construction investment, program-targeted expenditures, public services, bond issuance and payment; internal and external payment transactions.

- Organizations and individuals participating in electronic transactions with the KBNN who meet the technical infrastructure requirements set by the Ministry of Finance must register and obtain approval from the central KBNN or provincial KBNN where the electronic transactions take place.

If an organization or individual is confirmed by a service provider to have the necessary conditions to participate in electronic transactions, they shall notify the central KBNN or provincial KBNN (through the service provider) of their participation in electronic transactions with the KBNN without having to register directly with the KBNN.

- Conditions for payment documents presented in electronic format:

+ Units, organizations, and individuals conducting transactions with the KBNN based on electronic documents, files, and contracts established according to the prescribed procedures, formats, and complete information. Where documents and materials are only presented in electronic format (without paper documents as required), they must have verified digital signatures according to the regulations.

+ Those who create, control, approve, and process and sign on electronic documents shall be responsible for the contents of the electronic documents.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Article 9. Handling Violations

Organizations and individuals participating in electronic transactions in the field of the KBNN who violate the law will be subject to administrative penalties, compensation for damages, or criminal liability according to Decree No. 27/2007/NĐ-CP, the Law on State Budget, and other relevant laws.

Article 10. Provisions on implementation

1. This Circular takes effect 45 days from the date of signature.

2. Other contents not specified in this Circular shall be implemented in accordance with the Law on Electronic Transactions and current guiding documents.

During implementation, if there are any difficulties, agencies and units are requested to report to the Ministry of Finance for study and resolution./.