The Ministry of Construction is drafting a Circular guiding the method of determining estimate norms and economic and technical indicators to ensure compliance with Construction Law No. 135/2025/QH15, which will officially take effect from July 1, 2026.
According to the Ministry of Construction, in item 1, chapter V of the Construction Law, Article 74 stipulates the content of construction investment cost management including determining, appraising, evaluating, approving, preliminarily adjusting the total construction investment, total construction investment, construction estimate, construction package price, construction contract price; payment, finalization of construction contracts, investment capital; project management costs, construction consulting costs and other costs.
The law also stipulates the determination, use, and management of construction norms, construction prices, prices of direct cost factors constituting construction work prices, and construction price indexes.
The law also stipulates the rights and responsibilities of state management agencies, investors, investors and contractors in managing construction investment costs. Clause 4, Article 74 assigns the Government to detail this content.
On that basis, the Government is developing a Decree on management of construction investment costs, in which the draft stipulates that the Ministry of Construction shall guide on the content, methods of determining and managing construction investment costs, including preliminary total investment level, total investment level, construction estimate, construction norms, construction prices, prices of direct cost factors, construction price index, measurement of construction volume, investment capital conversion, project management costs and construction investment consulting costs.
The Ministry of Construction said that in the past time, it has issued many guiding circulars such as Circular 11/2021/TT-BXD, Circular 13/2021/TT-BXD and Circular 01/2025/TT-BXD.
These regulations contribute to helping the work of identifying and managing construction investment costs conveniently and uniformly nationwide.
However, the implementation process has some inadequacies that need to be adjusted to be consistent with the 2025 Construction Law and the new decree.
In which, the Ministry of Construction proposed to supplement the method of determining new estimate norms with reference to foreign norms; take advantage of direct monitoring data at the construction site; clarify the method of reviewing and updating the norm system.
Regarding the price of construction materials, the draft basically maintains the provisions of Circular 60/2025/TT-BXD, while clarifying the published price information as the average price in the period according to each type of material, type, specifications, source of supply or specific area.
Regarding construction labor costs, the draft shifts from the "group and level of workers" mechanism to determining by group of workers. Construction and installation labor is basically divided into 4 groups based on specific working groups. The draft also supplements guidance for application to remote, isolated, island areas or projects requiring special progress, mobilizing a large number of workers in a short time.
Regarding the price of machinery and construction equipment, the draft allows reference to foreign machinery price data, especially with advanced construction technology applied for the first time in Vietnam. The principle of determining labor costs for machinery operation is also adjusted according to the new labor price determination method.
Regarding the construction price index, the Ministry of Construction supplemented guidance on handling cases of lack of material price data at the time of comparison or failure to ensure consistency in types and specifications; and supplemented the method of summarizing local construction price indices from each region.
Regarding investment capital and cost rates, the draft basically maintains the current method, and at the same time supplements the method of determining construction cost rates, equipment costs, and guidelines for announcing investment capital rates and cost rates for specialized project management ministries and provincial-level People's Committees.
According to the Ministry of Construction, the issuance of a new circular is necessary to amend and supplement guiding regulations that are no longer appropriate and synchronized with the 2025 Construction Law and the accompanying decree system when the law takes effect from July 1, 2026.
