Regulations on land finance have not adapted to reality

	Correcting policy to avoid overlaps in inspection and supervision at land border gates
	Strengthening support for taxpayers to enjoy policy of reducing land and water surface rents

The conference

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that the draft Land Law (amended) was submitted by the Government to the National Assembly at the 4th session, the 15th National Assembly, and was discussed by the National Assembly deputies before the Standing Committee of the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 671/NQ-UBTVQH15 dated December 23, 2022, the Government issued Resolution No. 170/NQ-CP dated December 31, 2022 on the Plan on the collection of people's opinions on the draft Land Law (amended) and the public consultation on this draft Law.

In particular, the Government assigns ministries, ministerial-level agencies and Government-attached agencies to collect comments on the draft Law on contents under their assigned functions and tasks.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance organized a conference with the participation of a number of ministries, central agencies, enterprises, organizations, associations, experts, scientists and 63 cities and provinces to discuss regulations related to land finance in the draft Land Law (amended) and other issues related to the State management scope of the Ministry of Finance.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi said that after nearly 10 years of implementing the Land Law 2013, land management and land finance have achieved important results, creating a consistent legal corridor for the effective mobilization, exploitation and use of this source.

In particular, the policy of land finance has been improved, becoming a basis for State budget collection. VND160,000 billion per year was mobilized to the State budget in the 2013-2020 period on average, accounting for more than 15% of total state budget revenue.

The Deputy Minister also emphasized that policies on tax incentives, exemption and reduction of land use fees and land rents have made an important contribution to attracting investment, especially in remote and difficult social-economic areas.

The land policy on social housing has achieved a number of important results, in which the developed land price bracket and land price list, taking into account the prevailing land prices in the market.

The Deputy Minister also said that despite of important results, after nearly 10 years of implementation, the Land Law 2013, including regulations on land finance, have not kept pace with the rapid change of reality.

For example, the financial policy in the field of land have neither encouraged economical, efficient and sustainable use of land; nor restricted waste and violations of the law on land and create a sustainable revenue structure.

The methods of valuation and auction of land use rights are still inadequate and not suitable for reality. Besides, the determined land price is usually much lower than the market price; there is a gap in land price between adjacent localities; there are no sanctions to handle violations in land price determination and land use right auction.

Many opinions have been given at the conference, focusing on financial revenues from land; the basis and time for calculating land use fee and land rent; land price list, the determination of land prices for calculation of land use fee and land rent; rights and obligations of economic organizations and public non-business units using leased land with annual rental payment.

In addition, the land allocation and lease, change of land use purpose; grounds, conditions of land allocation and lease, change of land use purpose; auction of land use rights; bidding for projects using land; exemption or reduction of land use fee and land rent; handling of compensation and ground clearance for a number of cases of land allocation or lease; provisions on the transition of the Law were also discussed at the conference.

According to Mr. Phan Dinh Cuong, former Director of the Department of Public Asset Management, Resolutions 18, 19 and the Land Law clearly state that the principle of land valuation must comply with the market. In fact, those who are the biggest owners shall determine the market. The State is the biggest owner of land (public land), the draft needs to clarify that the State decides the market price.

Mr. Phan Dinh Cuong also noted, we are emphasizing the fact that the land price is not close to the market price, but if we continue to follow the trend to push the price up, it will cause many consequences for society, in which the real estate market sometimes increases, sometimes decreases, making the State's regulation low. Therefore, the draft needs to build a land price list so that all land transactions need to run around the land price list, not to push the price up but pull it down.

The draft Land Law (amended) consists of 16 chapters and 236 articles, of which one chapter stipulates the issues of land finance, land price, principles and basic contents of land finance and land price, principles, and basic contents of financial revenues from land and land prices.

In addition, the draft contains non-financial regulations on land but directly affect this issue such as land classification; land allocation, land lease, change of land use purpose; recognition (issuance of certificates) of land use rights; auction of land use rights, bidding for projects using land; compensation and site clearance.

Strengthening support for taxpayers to enjoy policy of reducing land and water surface rents

The draft also mentioned many new concepts such as land lease rights in land lease contracts, multi-purpose land, land prices according to the value of the region, standard land plots, rights to use underground space and space, directly or indirectly related to the scope of State management of the Ministry of Finance.