National Assembly mulls over increase to income tax threshold HA NOI (VNS) — National Assembly (NA) deputies spent yesterday morning discussing amendments and supplements to the laws on personal income tax (PIT), science and technology and anti-corruption. The changes, if accepted, will take effect from July 1, 2013 Presenting the changes to the existing law on the personal income tax base, Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue proposed raising the tax threshold from VND4 million ($192) to VND 9 million ($430) per month. He also suggested that the monthly threshold should increase for dependants from VND1.6 million ($75) to VND3.6 million ($170). However, Hue said that if the consumer price index (CPI) increases to over 20 per cent, the government would ask the National Assembly Standing Committee to adjust the exemption base for dependants to align this with the inflation rate. It is estimated that when the law comes into force in the second half of 2013, money collected by the State will be reduced by about VND5.2 trillion ($247 million). In 2014 the figure will drop by just over VND13.3 trillion ($635 million). The Chairman of the NA Committee for Finance and Budget, Phung Quoc Hien, said his committee endorsed the changes proposed by Hue. At present, there are 3.87 million people paying PIT, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the country's population. Under the new law, the number of people paying PIT will be about 1 million. The NA also heard the Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan presented a proposal for changes to the country's science laws. Among the changes suggested was the recommendation that preferential policies be designed for science and technology enterprises in order to promote their co-operation with businesses and to encourage them to push for more advanced technology. Commenting of the proposed changes to the law, Chairman of the NA Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung asked the drafting board to be more specific about the preferential conditions received by enterprises and businesses applying the new technology. Currently there are three types of contracts relating to science and technology. One covers research, one is for technology transfer and one is for service provided. Dung asked the compiling board to review these contract types, particularly the provisions in place relating to the selling and buying of intellectual property rights between enterprises. Finally, the NA heard Government Chief Inspector Huynh Phong Tranh call for changes in the present Anti-Corruption Law. He announced that state owned enterprises (SOEs) must be more transparent in their operations and held more accountable, suggesting that they make public their assets, capital, key management salaries and investments in affiliated companies. Tranh also said the Anti-Corruption Central Steering Committee would be affiliated with the Party Politburo, with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as the Director. This is in line with the Resolution of the 5th Plenary Session of the Party Central Committee. In his appraisal of the revised law, Chairman of the NA Judicial Committee Nguyen Van Hien asked the drafting board to come up with more specific conditions regulating the roles and responsibilities of management staff should a corruption case be detected in their organisation. In the afternoon, the deputies worked in groups to discuss preventing and combating law encroachment and reviewed the performance of the Presidents of the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court, and the enforcement of their verdicts.­­ — VNS