Consolidated Circular: Management and Use of Industrial Explosives and Explosive Precursors under the Ministry of Industry and Trade
RegHub explainer by New MarketerLast updated:
Based on:23/2024/TT-BCT - Government Official Gazette
This explanation was generated by AI and checked by an automated AI review, not by a human expert. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice and may contain errors. Check the official document before you rely on it.
This is a consolidated version of Circular No. 23/2024/TT-BCT dated 07 November 2024 (effective 01 January 2025), as amended by Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BCT (effective 01 July 2025) and Circular No. 15/2026/TT-BCT (effective 10 April 2026). It governs the management and use of industrial explosives and explosive precursor chemicals under the authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), applying to agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals that produce, trade, import/export, transport, store, or use these materials - primarily mining, construction blasting and precursor-chemical trading companies. Key content includes: the official lists of permitted industrial explosives and explosive precursors; the division of licensing authority among the Department of Industrial Safety Technique and Environment, the Chemicals Agency, and provincial People's Committees for issuing, reissuing, or adjusting production certificates, trading permits, import/export permits, and usage permits; the procedure for registering new explosive products; and the construction and operation of a national database on industrial explosives and precursors. Businesses in this sector must conduct safety risk assessments, prepare blasting plans and blasting passports, build emergency response plans, and submit periodic six-month/annual reports (due by the 18th-20th of June and December) plus ad-hoc reports when incidents occur. This is a specialized safety and licensing regulation for the explosives industry - it does not touch tax, accounting, e-invoicing, labor, or customs matters, so it is only relevant to the small number of mining, blasting-service, and explosive-precursor trading businesses.
Scope and applicability
This is a consolidated text combining Circular No. 23/2024/TT-BCT (issued 07 November 2024, effective 01 January 2025), Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BCT (effective 01 July 2025) and Circular No. 15/2026/TT-BCT (effective 10 April 2026) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), detailing the Law on Management and Use of Weapons, Explosives and Support Tools with respect to:
- The official lists of industrial explosives and explosive precursor chemicals permitted for production, trading and use in Vietnam
- Licensing authority for issuing, reissuing and adjusting permits/certificates
- Dossiers and procedures for registering new explosive products
- The national database on industrial explosives and explosive precursors
- Safety risk assessment, blasting plans/passports, emergency response plans, and reporting regimes
It applies to agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals involved in managing or using industrial explosives and explosive precursors in Vietnam.
Division of licensing authority
Department of Industrial Safety Technique and Environment: issues production-eligibility certificates for industrial explosives; trading licenses for industrial explosives; usage permits for research/testing organizations or Group-1 mineral-license holders; and blasting-service permits for continental-shelf, nationwide, or single-province operations.
Chemicals Agency: issues trading licenses for explosive precursors; import/export permits for both industrial explosives and precursors.
Provincial People's Committees: issue usage permits for local businesses (except cases reserved to the above agencies and the Ministry of National Defense); production-eligibility certificates for precursor manufacturers.
Registering new explosive products
The circular sets dossier requirements and processing timelines (5 working days for dossier review, 30 days to approve a research task, 15-20 days for each testing/recognition step) for registering new explosive products or adding them to the approved list, via a Science and Technology Council that evaluates technical specifications and supervises test blasts.
National database
MOIT builds and manages a database on industrial explosives and explosive precursors, updated continuously with licensing information and periodic/ad-hoc reports from businesses. Access outside one's own management scope requires a written request and an account issued by the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy.
Safety and reporting obligations for businesses
- Annual safety risk assessments, or whenever safety conditions change
- A Blasting Plan (approved by the enterprise's management) and a Blasting Passport for each blast
- An Emergency Response Plan, with annual drills and exercises
- Periodic six-month/annual reports: producers/traders report to the Department of Industrial Safety Technique and Environment by 20 June and 20 December; users report to provincial People's Committees by 18 June and 18 December
- Ad-hoc reports within 24 hours of unauthorized intrusion, theft, accidents or incidents; within 48 hours of ceasing operations
Effective dates
- Circular No. 23/2024/TT-BCT: effective from 01 January 2025 (original text)
- Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BCT (amending administrative decentralization provisions): effective from 01 July 2025
- Circular No. 15/2026/TT-BCT (amending Circular 38/2025/TT-BCT): effective from 10 April 2026
Editorial note
This is a specialized licensing and safety regulation for industrial explosives, outside the platform's core focus areas of VAT/CIT taxation, e-invoicing, labor, or customs. It primarily affects mining companies, construction firms that use blasting, and businesses trading explosive precursor chemicals - a narrow industry segment rather than SMEs generally.