A reader in Hung Yen expressed his concern that Point b, Clause 2, Article 5 of Circular No. 40/2017/TT-BTC stipulates: "For cadres, civil servants, public employees... who travel 15 km or more on business trips and use their own personal vehicles, they will be paid a lump sum of 0.2 liters of gasoline/km calculated according to the administrative distance and gasoline price at the time of the business trip and specified in the internal spending regulations of the unit.
Readers ask, is the above business trip considered an intra-provincial or inter-provincial business trip? A business trip over 15 km can be intra-provincial, intra-district or inter-provincial. Unclear regulations may cause difficulties in payment.
Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance affirmed that officials who travel more than 15 km (or 10 km in difficult areas) can be reimbursed for personal vehicle expenses, but must comply with the agency's internal regulations. The Ministry of Finance explained:
Point b Clause 2 Article 5 Circular No. 40/2017/TT-BTC dated April 28, 2017 of the Minister of Finance stipulates the regime of business trip expenses, conference expenses; regulations on payment of fixed expenses for car use when on business trips, fixed expenses for self-funded means of transport for business trips as follows:
"For cadres, civil servants and public employees who are not eligible to be provided with a car when going on business trips, but if they go on business trips 10 km or more from the agency headquarters (for communes in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, especially difficult ones according to the Prime Minister's Decisions) and 15 km or more (for the remaining communes) and use their own personal vehicles, they will be paid a fixed amount of money for self-sufficient vehicles equal to 0.2 liters of gasoline/km calculated according to the administrative boundary distance and gasoline price at the time of the business trip and specified in the internal spending regulations of the unit".
Thus, cadres, civil servants and public employees who travel 15 km or more (or 10 km in difficult areas) by personal vehicle can be reimbursed for fuel costs according to the unit's internal spending regulations. However, to avoid problems when making payments, it is necessary to carefully check internal regulations and administrative boundary distances.
