Three cases of revocation of domestic maritime transport licenses from February 1, 2026.

Three cases of revocation of domestic coastal shipping permits effective from February 1, 2026. Illustrative photo: VNA

Effective from February 1, 2026, Circular No. 41/2025/TT-BXD dated November 28, 2025 of the Ministry of Construction, which regulates the authority and procedures for granting domestic coastal shipping permits to foreign vessels, clearly stipulates the cases in which domestic coastal shipping permits shall be revoked.

Specifically, domestic coastal shipping permits shall be revoked in three cases: the vessel no longer meets the legal requirements for transporting cargo, passengers, and luggage; transporting cargo, passengers, and luggage inconsistent with the contents stated in the domestic coastal shipping permit; forging, erasing, or deliberately falsifying information related to the vessel, shipping routes, cargo, passengers, luggage, and other relevant information.

In cases of violations involving foreign vessels transporting oversized or overweight cargo or other types of cargo by specialized ships; clearing congested cargo, passengers, and luggage at ports when Vietnamese vessels are incapable of transport; or serving disaster prevention and mitigation, epidemic control, or urgent humanitarian relief, the Minister of Construction shall be responsible for revoking the permit.

For cases where foreign vessels transport passengers and luggage between cruise ships and the mainland and vice versa using the cruise ship’s own transfer vehicles, the Director of the Maritime Port Authority shall be responsible for revoking the domestic coastal shipping permit.

Circular No. 41/2025/TT-BXD applies to Vietnamese organizations and individuals, as well as foreign organizations and individuals, involved in domestic coastal shipping operations by foreign vessels.

Accordingly, a foreign vessel is defined as a seagoing vessel registered under a foreign national flag.

Domestic coastal shipping refers to the transportation of cargo, passengers, and luggage by sea vessels where both the loading and unloading locations are within Vietnam’s maritime zones.

From the effective date of Circular No. 41/2025/TT-BXD, Circular No. 50/2016/TT-BGTVT dated December 30, 2016 of the Minister of Transport on procedures for granting domestic coastal shipping permits to foreign vessels, and Article 2 of Circular No. 08/2022/TT-BGTVT dated June 16, 2022 amending and supplementing certain provisions of circulars related to business activities in the maritime and inland waterway sectors, shall be repealed.