The Forex Management Ordinance, released in 2005 to fight against dollarization, sets strict regulations on forex management. Individuals have the right to keep dollars in cash, give to others and sell dollars to licensed credit institutions. All transactions of payment, listing prices and advertisements must not be carried out in dollars.

This means that though individuals are allowed to keep dollars, they cannot use the dollars for payments, unless they sell dollars to licensed institutions.

However, dollars are still being traded illegally in Vietnam. 

A man in Can Tho City recently was caught selling a 100-dollar banknote at a gold shop and fined VND90 million.

While high ranking officials said the behavior is worth a heavy fine, many people argue that it is unfair to impose a fine on one man while the transaction is carried out by the majority of Vietnamese.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, deputy chair of the HCMC Bar Association, said the transactions are common because it is difficult for people to find legal foreign currency collection points.

“They just go to the nearest point they find to make the transaction,” Hau explained. 

Many individuals and private shops quote prices of products and services in dollar and foreign currencies, though this is prohibited by law.

It is easy to find price quotations in dollars or yuan in Nha Trang, Quang Ninh, or even in the central district 1 in HCMC.

In late March 2017, a souvenir shop in Ha Long City in Quang Ninh province was fined VND400 million for quoting prices of products in dollars. In 2016, a business specializing in serving Chinese travelers in the city was fined VND500 million for quoting prices in yuan.

However, institutions and individuals still continue to violate the regulation.

Though the Can Tho People’s Committee’s decision on October 23 imposed a fine of VND90 million on the man who violated the law and it was reported by all local newspapers, the free foreign currency market is still bustling.

On October 24, when reporters went to H gold shop at Tan Dinh Market in HCMC and said they wanted to sell $100, the owner of the shop said the price of the day was VND23,465-23,475 per dollar.

The reporters also easily sold $2,000 at a shop on ‘gold street’ in district 5. The transaction was concluded within five minutes.

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