Circular 208/2016/TT-BTC: New regulations on fees and charges for national domain names “.vn”
On November 10, 2016, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) issued Circular No. 208/2016/TT-BTC (“Circular No. 208”) providing for the collection rates, regime of collection, payment, management and use of fees and charges for national domain names “.vn” and internet addresses (IP) of Vietnam. Circular No. 208 is effective as of January 01, 2017, replacing Circular No. 189/2010/TT-BTC dated November 24, 2010. According to Circular 208, many items of registration fees and maintenance charges of national domain names “.vn” have been adjusted down from corresponding previous fees and charges.
Regarding national domain names “.vn”, concretely, the registration fee of a second-level domain name is VND* 200,000/registration, down from the previous rate of VND 350,000. For third-level domain names under a common second-level domain name, registration fees have also decreased, from VND 350,000/registration to VND 200,000 in case of com.vn, net.vn, biz.vn; and from VND 200,000/registration down to VND 120,000 in case of edu.vn, gov.vn, org.vn, ac.vn, info.vn, pro.vn, health.vn, int.vn and administrative boundary-based domain name.
Concerning annual maintenance charges for national domain names “.vn”, the new regulations maintain the rate of VND 40 million/year and VND 10 million/year applied to a second-level domain names consisting of one character and those consisting of two characters, respectively. For other second-level domain names, the maintenance charges have decreased from VND 480,000/year to VND 350,000/year. Meanwhile, for third-level domain names under a common second-level domain name, the annual maintenance charges have also been adjusted, from VND 350,000/year down to 250,000/year (in case of com.vn, net.vn, biz.vn); and from VND 200,000/year down to VND 150,000/year (in case of edu.vn, gov.vn, org.vn, ac.vn, info.vn, pro.vn, health.vn, int.vn and administrative boundary-based domain names). The maintenance fee for third-level domain names under a common second-level domain name “name.vn” keeps the same previous rate of VND 30.000/year. However, maintenance fee exemption for Vietnamese-language domain names prescribed under the previous regulations has been removed. Instead, under the new regulations, maintenance fee for use of Vietnamese-language domain names is VND 20.000/year.
According to Circular No. 208, Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC), the agency under the Ministry of Information and Communication which is responsible for granting domain names “.vn” and Vietnam’s IP addresses, shall be the collector of domain name registration fees and maintenance charges.
* Current VND/USD exchange rate: about VND22,000/1USD