At a meeting on January 10 of the NA Standing Committee's 5th session, the law committee recommended the highest fine for administrative violations by individuals at VND1 billion (US$47,619). The level for the organisations is at VND2 billion (US$95,238).

Administrative fines are applied to individuals or organisations which violate legal regulations on state management, but whose violations are not serious enough to be prosecuted as criminals.

In mid-October in 2011, the Ministry of Justice submitted the Law on Administrative Punishment to the NA Standing Committee for consideration, proposing that the maximum administrative fine of VND2 billion for both individuals and organisations.

Chairman of the NA Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said it was necessary to increase the fines, but it must be based on the national economic conditions and people’s average incomes.

He also said that if only the fine was increased, and there wasn’t a sufficient amount of education and publicity work conducted on the issue, then the new fines could cause additional problems, pushing offenders into more extreme measures to avoid detection.

Chairman of the NA Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung said the higher fines would act as a warning for people, particularly regarding their awareness of the need to conform to the law.

The NA Standing Committee also agreed with the proposal to allow centrally-governed cities to apply fines for traffic violations in inner-city areas.

Many NA deputies also agreed with the draft law on removing the regulation on taking measures to force sex workers to enter medical centres. This regulation was considered to too harsh and a restriction on their civil rights. They would also not receive criminal records.

Dtnews