The Government is seeking opinions on a draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 24/2012/ND-CP on management of gold trading activities. The draft proposes a series of new regulations to tighten conditions for trading gold bars and control transactions related to gold more closely.
According to the draft, gold bar production and gold bar trading continue to be conditional business lines. Only enterprises and commercial banks that fully meet the strict criteria will be considered by the State Bank for a license to produce gold bars.
Accordingly, enterprises that want to be granted a Gold bar production license must have a Business License for buying and selling gold bars; have a charter capital of VND 1,000 billion or more; not be subject to administrative sanctions or have remedied the consequences of the violation (if any); have internal procedures to regulate the production of gold bars.
For commercial banks, the conditions are similar but require a minimum charter capital of up to VND50,000 billion. This regulation aims to ensure that only organizations with financial and governance capacity are allowed to participate in the production of gold bars.
A notable new point is the addition of the regulation requiring non-cash payments for gold trading with a value of VND20 million or more per day. These transactions must be made through payment accounts of customers and businesses opened at commercial banks or foreign bank branches.
The draft also requires businesses when selling gold as raw materials purchased from licensed organizations to use electronic invoices; store complete transaction data; and connect to provide information to management agencies according to legal regulations.
In addition, gold bar manufacturing organizations must announce product volume and content standards and be responsible for the accuracy of this information. Enterprises and commercial banks must also build an information system to process and store data on the production and trading of gold bars; at the same time, connect to provide information to competent state agencies.
Regarding gold export and import activities, the State Bank will issue annual limits and each license for units allowed to produce gold bars. Imported gold must have a content of 99.5% or more and must only be used for specific purposes such as the production of gold bars, jewelry, or resold to qualified units.
The State Bank is also authorized to regulate procedures and documents for granting licenses for exporting and importing gold, and organize inspections of gold trading activities within the scope prescribed in the decree.
Gold trading organizations must periodically report on gold production, trading and import-export activities to the State Bank and competent authorities. All acts of producing and trading gold bars without a license, importing and exporting them without regulations are considered violations of the law.
The draft also clearly stipulates the responsibilities of ministries such as Industry and Trade, Finance, Science and Technology, Public Security and Provincial People's Committees in coordinating state management of gold trading activities.
