Hanoi (VNA) - More than 8,000 enterprisesnationwide currently owe social insurance premiums totalling some 2 trillionVND (87 million USD). These debts are very difficult to retrieve, with someeven impossible to get, according to Vietnam Social Security (VSS).
The VSS said last year the agency conducted more than 4,000inspections at enterprises and units which owed social insurance debt for along time. After the punishments were imposed, only more than 40 percent ofviolating enterprises paid the debts.
Unpaid social insurance premiums so far have reached about5.737 trillion VND (250 million USD), below the planned debt ratio of 3 percent.
The VSS has faced difficulties in recovering debts,especially those owned by enterprises whose owners fled, those which wentbankrupt and those which stopped operation but ran out of money to pay the debtafter asset liquidation.
There is no regulation on how to compensate labourers workingfor these enterprises.
The VSS said that the agency has categorised cases of socialinsurance debt and applied solutions.
Enterprises which fail to pay the debt less than one monthafter the deadline will be reminded. Those which fail to pay the debt two tothree months after the deadline will have to pay interest. Those which havebeen in debt for more than three months will be inspected and fined.
The VSS has also transferred dossiers of debt-owingenterprises to inspection agencies for further punishment.
To address the issue, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalidsand Social Affairs has proposed a decree managing the collection of socialinsurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance debts. It aims toprotect labourers of enterprises which went bankrupt or have had their ownersflee.
The decree proposes that the funds used to pay labourerswhose insurance is owed will be sourced from the sum of money called debtinterests that debt-owing employers have to pay.
According to the proposed decree, debts of social insurance,health insurance and unemployment insurance are divided into four types.
They are debts of less than one month, from one to threemonths, more than three months and debt difficult to be recovered. – VNA