This move aims to protect national financial transparency and prevent the misuse of humanitarian activities for illicit purposes.
Enhancing financial transparency: Stopping the misuse of humanitarian funds, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Foreign grants are a crucial resource, supplementing socio -economic development programs, humanitarian assistance, and poverty reduction efforts in Vietnam. However, the rise of transnational financial crimes, particularly money laundering and tax evasion, has posed a significant challenge to managing these capital flows.
Decree 313/2025/ND-CP, effective from December 8, 2025, replacing Decree 80/2020/ND-CP, clearly demonstrates the Government 's determination to establish a more stringent legal framework for non-refundable aid that does not fall under official development assistance (ODA).
Economic experts assess that the Decree affirms the principle of "zero tolerance." The core and groundbreaking regulation of the new Decree is the strict prohibition of using aid to serve the purposes of money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion; seeking profit-sharing, personal gain; causing losses, waste, corruption, or harming national security and social order. "Including money laundering and tax evasion on the list of absolute prohibitions is a necessary step to strengthen the national financial crime prevention and control system, while affirming Vietnam's commitment to international standards on anti-money laundering (AML)," emphasized market economist Tran Manh Hung.
The decree requires that the legal origin of aid funds be ensured.
Notably, to enforce the ban on using aid for negative purposes, Decree 313 has detailed regulations on the principles of financial management for aid funds. Specifically, the Decree requires ensuring the legal origin of aid funds, demanding that the receiving agency be responsible for assessing the legality of the funds from the outset. At the same time, it must ensure transparency of the flow of funds, as the receipt and disbursement of funds must be conducted through the aid receiving account, ensuring openness, transparency, and full reporting. Furthermore, state budget accounting has been tightened: Aid funds that are part of state budget revenue must be fully projected, accounted for, and settled according to the provisions of the State Budget Law. Even aid funds that are not part of state budget revenue must comply with current accounting and tax regulations.
This regulation creates a tight control barrier from the receipt to the disbursement stage, making it more difficult to exploit humanitarian and charitable projects to legitimize dirty money or evade tax obligations.
Tighten aid management to get out of the "grey list".
The tightening of management of non-ODA grants through Decree 313 is not only an internal requirement but also a pressure stemming from international commitments on combating financial crime. As a member of the Asia- Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), Vietnam is striving to improve its legal framework to comply with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT).
The promulgation of Decree 313/2025/ND-CP is a positive sign, marking a maturation in Vietnam's public financial management. However, its actual effectiveness will depend on the determination to translate the legal framework into practical action, ensuring that all aid funds are used for humanitarian purposes and sustainable development.
Including money laundering and tax evasion as absolutely prohibited acts in the aid sector is a crucial step towards improving compliance. "This is a very decisive legal move by the Government, helping Vietnam minimize the risk of being placed on the FATF's 'grey list' of high-risk countries for money laundering. Without decisive action, the country's financial credibility would be severely damaged, hindering cross-border transactions and investments," Mr. Hung affirmed.
However, economic experts also note that, despite the strengthened legal framework, the biggest challenge remains in implementation and supervision. Supervision of approved aid needs to be enhanced. The managing agency and the Ministry of Finance need to establish mechanisms for regular and unscheduled inspections to ensure that funds are used for their intended purpose and effectively, preventing loss, waste, or personal gain. In particular, aid not sourced from the state budget (received by non-governmental organizations and private funds) requires a separate supervision mechanism to ensure compliance with tax and accounting regulations without hindering the implementation of humanitarian projects.
In addition, Decree 313 also adds a mechanism allowing the managing agency to decide to stop receiving or discontinue a project/non-project if, after 6 months from the date of approval, inconsistencies or force majeure events arise. This flexible mechanism for stopping the acceptance of aid helps prevent approved aid from being misused due to potential funding risks or inconsistencies with policy, thus avoiding prolonged exploitation.
The managing agency needs to step up efforts to increase the transparency and openness of basic information regarding the aid...
Digitalize management to ensure aid money reaches the right people.
In particular, many economic experts agree that for Decree 313 to be truly effective in combating the misuse of aid for money laundering and tax evasion, comprehensive solutions and management modernization are needed. First, it is necessary to digitize and interconnect data throughout the entire aid management process, from registration and approval to accounting and settlement. This includes building a centralized database of aid funds, interconnected between the Ministry of Finance and commercial banks to track the flow of money. Digitization helps to quickly trace suspicious transactions and detect early signs of money laundering or tax evasion.
Furthermore, the managing agency needs to strengthen the public disclosure and transparency of basic information about aid, such as the donor's name, purpose, value, and progress, on the electronic portal, especially for large aid projects. Mr. Nguyen The Tien, a resident of Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, expressed his agreement: "We always support humanitarian aid projects, but sometimes we still worry about whether the money actually reaches the poor and needy. Publicizing this information online will help people like us monitor it. Just knowing who is funding it, what they are doing, and how far they are doing it makes us feel much more secure."
Finally, intensive training on AML/CFT is needed for staff involved in managing, receiving, and utilizing aid funds at Vietnamese agencies and organizations. This ensures that the new regulations are understood and applied correctly, improving the quality of appraisal and monitoring.
Source: https://vtv.vn/kiem-soat-dong-tien-vien-tro-ngan-rua-tien-va-tron-thue-100251212194943462.htm
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