A construction site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern economic hub.

The National Assembly on Friday passed a slew of legislative amendments that will curtail the annual growth rate, abolish capital punishment for several offences, and defer and exempt personal income tax payments.

In the resolution that adjusted economic targets for the year, the consumer price index (CPI) will be kept to below 10 percent, export growth will be scaled down to 3 percent and budget deficit will have a maximum limit of 7 percent of the GDP.

The government argued that the economic slump had hit production, trade, investment, and employment generation very hard, making it impossible to attain the original targets fixed for the year,.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung had told the NA that state revenues had fallen while expenditures had risen. The government will strive to keep the deficit as low as possible, and reduce it further over the coming years, he added.

Legislators also approved the issue of an additional VND20 trillion ($1.1 billion) worth of government bonds for investment in transport, irrigation and health projects.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the ongoing NA session, Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong said the country will “continue its efforts and take measures to prevent economic slowdown, keep economic growth at a rational level, maintain macroeconomic stability, actively prevent the recurrence of inflation, and ensure social welfare, national defense, security, political stability and social order.”

The economy grew by the lowest level in many years at 6.18 percent last year, but both local and international experts have said Vietnam is doing much better than other countries in battling recession, able to post positive growth figures in the first quarter of the year.

Death penalty crimes whittled

The legislature Friday passed with over 74 percent approval amendments to the Penal Code that will jettison capital punishment for seven crimes.

Under the newly amended law that will take effect on January 1, 2010, the death sentence will no longer be applied in cases of bribery, rape, counterfeiting of money and bonds, hijacking ships and planes, destruction of weapons and military equipment, appropriation of property through swindling, smuggling, and illegal drug use.

Capital punishment will be retained for drug trading, transportation and storage. Many delegates said these were dangerous crimes linked to each other. Some cases of transporting and storing a large quantity of drugs have grave consequences, thus it is necessary to retain the ultimate penalty, the delegates felt.

Global human rights group Amnesty International said it welcomed “very much” Vietnam’s reduction in the number of capital offence cases, AFP reported Friday.

Income tax deferment

The National Assembly Friday approved the exemption of personal income tax payment that had been deferred from January- June this year.

The exemption will be extended to this year end for capital investments and transfers, including that of securities, copyrights and franchises.

According to the NA Standing Committee, the exemption will encourage the financial market to recover and develop, creating an important channel for mobilizing capital for development.

However, other taxpayers will have to pay personal income tax from next month onwards.

The NA Standing Committee said the tax exemption for the first six months was necessary to fulfill the target of spurring the economy. However, exemption for the next six months will not ensure strict implementation of the law.

Tuition fees raised

The NA Friday also approved a resolution changing some financial policies in the education and training sector.

The resolution stated that tuition fees in universities and vocational training establishments, in the 2009- 2010 academic year, will be raised in small increments, and have a transitional period before the five-year roadmap for increasing the fees will begin in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Students graduating from high schools will enjoy a 50 percent reduction of tuition fees when undergoing vocational training, while poor students will enjoy tuition fee reduction or exemptions, and be facilitated in accessing bank loans to continue their studies.

Tuition fees for kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and high schools will gradually increase each year until the ceiling is reached in the 2014-2015 academic year.

The fees will be calculated in accordance with the economic condition of each locality and the payment capacity of households. Tuition fee exemptions for schools will be considered at a suitable time in the future, the resolution said.

The legislature also passed Friday amendments to five construction-related laws that ban constructors from using foreign workers if locals are competent to do the job.

One of the amendments, which takes effect in August, stipulates the merging of documentation for land-use rights and house ownership into the “pink book.”

Currently “red books” are certificates that confer land-use rights while the pink books express titles to both land and houses.

Reported by Ngan Anh