Tour firms eye maximum deposit rates

The HCMC Tourism Association has continued to petition Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the central bank to allow travel agencies to enjoy commercial term interest rates from deposits instead of the low rate for call deposits.
Nguyen Thi Khanh, vice chairwoman of the HCMC Tourism Association, said that the organization would continue to send the petition to relevant agencies until they get a convincing reply.
“We proposed this solution earlier this year and were told to wait but no feedback has come so far,” according to Khanh. She noted that such support was needed for tourism businesses given the current increasingly difficult economic conditions.
As per the Tourism Law, any firm applying for a business license in the international travel segment is required to deposit a sum of VND250 million at a bank. This amount will be used as an indemnity for customers in necessary cases.
Upon the confirmation of a deposit from the bank, VNAT will grant the travel agency with the license.
A source from VNAT told the Daily that total deposits by nationwide travel agencies had risen to around VND200 billion as of earlier this year.
VNAT has suggested using profits from deposits on travel promotion activities but encountered objections from companies. These firms said that the right to decide on how to use profits belongs to them.
With non-term rates like now, each of such enterprises will annually lose dozens of millions of Vietnam dong as interest sums from deposits. The money is a lot for the companies, as most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises.