Dinh Van Hiep, director of the Viet Nam Social Security’s branch in Da Nang City revealed the information at a meeting between the branch and the inspection team of the National Assembly (NA)’s Committee on Social Affairs on September 6.

The meeting aims to assess the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance in the city during the 2016-21 period.

Notably, the number of units and enterprises that failed to pay social insurance premiums is still relatively high.

Statistics show that the total debt of social and unemployment insurance from local units and enterprises was VND194.4 billion ($8.2 million) in 2016.

In 2019, the number was VND144 billion ($6 million), about 25.9 per cent lower than in 2016.

However, in the 2020-21 period, due to the pandemic, many local units and enterprises faced difficulties, so the debt of social and unemployment insurance from local units and enterprises increased by about VND183.8 billion ($7.77 million) each year.

Dang Thuan Phong, deputy head of the NA’s Committee on Social Affairs delivers a speech at the meeting

Nguyen Hung Anh, Deputy Director of the branch, said non-State enterprises were found to have the highest rate of social and unemployment insurance payment in arrears, about 10.25 per cent per year.

The group of foreign-invested enterprises had a very small rate of unpaid social and unemployment insurance premiums, only 2.06 per cent.

By the end of last year, there were 1,094 units that were dissolved or went bankrupt. They failed to pay the delayed social and unemployment insurance premiums to the branch. The debt was estimated to be about VND38.5 billion ($1.62 million), excluding the interest for late payment.

Besides, many local units, which failed to make the payment of social and unemployment insurance to the branch, also did not pay the interest for late payment, he said.

Currently, there is no mechanism to handle the violations, so it makes it difficult to recover the social insurance fund, he said.

Dinh Van Hiep, head of the branch, discusses with the delegation at the meeting

At the meeting, Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, NA deputy of Da Nang City, a member of the inspection team wondered if the mechanisms, such as suing and handling violations according to the Penal Code, has not been effective to handle enterprises that failed to pay social insurance contributions in the city.

Anh answered that suing enterprises is the last thing that the branch does, after it and relevant State management agencies used many measures to order them to make the payment but failed.

Moreover, most enterprises failed to make the payment due to difficulties in production and business, he said.

Therefore, this is a complicated job and requires close coordination between agencies, he added.

Anh said over the past six years, the branch has sued two local enterprises, namely Da Nang Transport Works Construction Joint Stock Company and TBO VINA Company Limited for failing to pay social and unemployment insurance premiums to the branch.

The total unpaid insurance premiums by the two companies is VND14 billion (US$592,000), he said.

Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, NA deputy of Da Nang City, a member of the inspection team, at the meeting

Pham Nhu Hiep, NA deputy of Thua Thien Hue Province, a member of the inspection team, questioned the coordination in handling units and enterprises that failed to pay social and health insurance.

Anh said that the branch has promptly advised and coordinated with the People's Committees at all levels to establish interdisciplinary debt-collection teams to fix the situation.

In 2021, the team worked with 36 local units, that failed to pay social and unemployment insurance premiums, and collected VND11.9 billion ($502,000), reaching 97.63 per cent of the total debt.

In the first seven months of this year, the team worked with 155 local units and collected VND5.3 billion ($224,000), reaching 33.42 per cent of the total debt.

Besides, during the 2016-21 period, the branch coordinated with relevant agencies to inspect 1,025 local units and enterprises and then collected VND89.2 billion (US$3.5 million) of social and unemployment insurance premiums in arrears, accounting for 75 per cent of the total debt.

Concluding the meeting, Dang Thuan Phong, deputy head of the NA’s Committee on Social Affairs and head of the inspection team, said the social insurance sector still has a lot of work to do while human resources are limited and the policy mechanism and legal system needs to be adjusted to fit with the development of the sector. 

He also highly appreciated the cooperation between the branch and relevant agencies in the city; thereby contributing to increasing revenue as well as limiting the situation of avoiding payment of social and health insurance premiums.

Phong added that the meeting helped the team have an accurate assessment report on the real situation of the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance in the city during the 2016-21 period.

The team will make recommendations on amending the Law on Social Insurance and the Law on Health Insurance to fix current shortcomings./.