Draft Law on Prices (amended) persists in following market principles and is under the management of the State. Photo: ST

The Law on Prices No. 11/2012/QH13 was approved by the National Assembly at the 3rd session of the XIII National Assembly and took effect from January 1, 2013. Synchronously with that, detailed documents guiding the implementation of the Law have been promulgated, creating a full legal framework for the State's price management and administration. However, after nine years of implementing the Law on Prices, certain limit ations and shortcomings have arisen. For example, the contents of several articles and clauses in the Law still have different interpretations, making it difficult to apply, or some of the provisions are no longer consistent with the reality, or several new problems have arisen.

To overcome the current problems, implementing the Law and Ordinance Development Program 2022 of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Finance has chaired and coordinated to develop the Law on Price Scheme (amended). In developing the draft Law on Prices (amended), the Ministry of Finance has paid great attention to reforming administrative procedures and control of administrative procedures to create the most favourable conditions for organizations and individuals. Accordingly, in the process of developing the draft Law, regulations on administrative procedures are developed towards the direction of focusing on the necessity, rationality and legality of administrative procedures as well as reviewing and calculating the costs incurred by the organizations and individuals (if any) have to spend when carrying out administrative procedures which are expected to be promulgated to consider and choose the optimal plan and solution for the promulgation of administrative procedures.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance has concentrated on quantifying the costs that individuals and organizations have to spend when carrying out administrative procedures that have been issued or are expected to be promulgated, thereby offering solutions to carry out administrative procedures following the management level and the physical and technical conditions of the concerned parties, ensuring the lowest costs that organizations and individuals have to spend.

The Ministry of Finance said that in the draft Law on Prices (amended), new administrative procedures will be expected to be promulgated. That is the procedure for registration of practising price appraisal. Previously, the registration of practising price appraisal of price appraisers was regulated in Circular No. 38/2014/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance guiding several articles of Decree No. 89/2013/NĐ-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of several articles of the price law on the appraisal of prices and Circular No. 60/2021/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance on amendments to some articles of the Government's Decree No.38/2014/TT-BTC. However, it has not been announced as an administrative procedure.

After the regulation on registration of practising price appraisal was included in the draft Law on Prices (amended), through review, the Ministry of Finance found that the recognition of the above procedure as an administrative procedure is necessary to facilitate organizations and individuals, especially price appraisers, to register for practice, ensuring compliance with the provisions of law. The cost of complying with the above administrative procedures is quantified from the management practice of practising price appraisal of the appraisers in the past time.

In addition, the draft Law on Prices (amended) also amends and supplements several administrative procedures, such as regulations on registration to participate in the price appraiser exam or regulations on granting and re-granting certificates of eligibility for business in price appraisal services. According to the Ministry of Finance, these administrative procedures have been amended and supplemented to ensure the convenience of dossiers, orders and procedures for relevant organizations and individuals (price appraisal enterprises, price appraisers) when carrying out administrative procedures for registration to participate in the exam for the issuance of the price appraiser's card, and for the grant and re-grant of the certificate of eligibility for business in appraisal services.

The cost of complying with the above administrative procedures is quantified from the results of implementing the above administrative procedures in the past. The results are expected to be achieved when carrying out these procedures after they have been amended and supplemented. The results showed that compliance with administrative procedures after being amended and supplemented is reduced compared to the current cost, reducing the administrative burden on the affected subjects.

The draft Law on Prices (amended) will also abolish several administrative procedures prescribed in the current Law on Prices. That is the regulation on price registration of enterprises on the list of price registration at the Ministry of Finance. This administrative procedure was abolished because the draft Law on Prices does not stipulate price registration. Or such as abolishing the regulation on price decisions under provincial authority because this is a regulation on the exercise of powers and responsibilities of state management agencies on prices for goods and services in the List of goods, services are priced by the State rather than specific jobs related to organizations and individuals as defined in the definition of administrative procedures specified in Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree No. 63/2010/ND-CP of the Government dated June 8 2010.