The Ministry of Justice has published a dossier of appraisal of drafting the Criminal Code (amended) by the Ministry of Public Security, which is expected to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and comments, through the order and procedures at the 10th session, the XV National Assembly in October 2025.
In Article 216 of the draft Penal Code (amended), the Ministry of Public Security proposed amendments to the crime of evasion of social insurance (SI), health insurance, and unemployment insurance for employees.
Clause 1 of this Article clearly states that anyone who is obliged to pay social insurance, health insurance, or unemployment insurance for employees but fraudulently or by other means does not pay or does not pay in full according to regulations for 6 months or more in one of the following cases, has been administratively sanctioned for this act but still violates, will be fined VND 100-400 million (current regulations 50-200 million VND), sentenced to non-custodial reform for up to 1 year or imprisoned from 3 months to 1 year:
Insurance payables range from VND 100 million to VND under VND 600 million (current regulations 50 million VND to under VND 300 million).
Exemption from insurance payment for 10 people to less than 50 employees.
In Clause 2, Article 216 of the draft, criminals are subject to a fine of VND 400 million to VND 1 billion or a prison sentence of VND 6 months to 3 years, if they fall into one of the following cases: Committing a crime 2 times or more; evasion of insurance payment from VND 600 million to less than VND 2 billion (current regulations from VND 300 million to less than VND 1 billion); evasion of insurance payment for 50 to less than 200 employees; Failure to pay the insurance amount collected or deducted from employees.
In Clause 3 of this Article, the offender will be fined 1-2 billion VND (current regulations from 500 million VND to 1 billion VND) or sentenced to imprisonment for 2-7 years if he/she falls into one of the following cases: Escaping insurance payment of 2 billion VND or more (current regulations of 1 billion VND); evasion of insurance payment for 200 or more employees; not paying the insurance amount collected or deducted by employees as prescribed.
The offender may also be fined from 40 million VND to 200 million VND (current regulations range from 20 million VND to 100 million VND).
For commercial entities, the draft proposes to double the fine level prescribed in current regulations as follows:
Committing a crime under the provisions of Clause 1 will be fined from VND 400 million to VND 2 billion; Committing a crime under Clause 2 will be fined from VND 1-2 billion and committing a crime under Clause 3 will be fined from VND 2-6 billion.
Currently, the act of evading social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance for employees is prosecuted under Article 216 of the Penal Code 2015, amended and supplemented in 2017.
In addition, according to Article 17 of the Social Insurance Law 2014, evasion of social insurance payment is a prohibited act. Employers may be administratively fined 50-75 million VND according to Point a, Clause 7, Article 39 of Decree 12/2022; the fine for enterprises will be twice the fine for individuals of 100-150 million VND.
