There are many different opinions about the draft Land Law (amended).

Distinguishing land access projects

Reporting on some major issues of receiving, explaining and revising the draft Law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that this is a large law project with a wide scope of regulation, difficult and complicated content, greatly affecting people's lives and socio-economic development activities. The process of receiving and revising continues to receive many different opinions. The contents of the draft law are only initial proposals to solicit opinions from full-time National Assembly deputies, and the agencies have not yet agreed on the best plan to revise the draft Law.

Regarding land recovery for socio-economic development in the national and public interest, many opinions say that the provisions in the draft law listing cases where the State recovers land are rigid, do not fully reflect, and do not fundamentally overcome the shortcomings.

According to the Chairman of the Economic Committee, the regulation in the direction of listing cases of land recovery for socio-economic development for national and public interests has the advantage of ensuring clarity, ease of monitoring, and ease of application. However, the disadvantage of listing too specifically and in detail land recovery projects and works is that it is difficult to ensure comprehensiveness and completeness. During the discussion, there were opinions that the current approach of listing cases has not clarified the necessity of these projects and works in the spirit of Article 54 of the Constitution.

This is an important provision of the Land Law, which requires utmost caution, careful consideration, ensuring full institutionalization of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW and compliance with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution to clearly stipulate, avoid different interpretations, causing difficulties in practice. In cases of land recovery for socio-economic development, for national and public interests, it is agreed with cases where the State recovers land to regulate the difference in added value from land due to changes in planning, infrastructure investment, harmonizing the interests between the State - people - investors and cases of land recovery to ensure conditions for implementing land use investment projects, from which investment projects will create new sources of revenue for the state budget, bringing overall benefits to the entire people and society. For people whose land is recovered, the State shall carry out compensation, support, and resettlement according to regulations. All options need further research, clarification, and revision to ensure clear, reasonable, and feasible regulations.

Regarding cases of bidding to select investors to implement projects using land, the Chairman of the Economic Committee said that the 2013 Law on Bidding and Decree No. 25/2020/ND-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Bidding on investor selection also distinguish two groups of investment projects that conduct bidding to select investors to implement the project. These are: Investment projects using land to build commercial housing, commercial - service works, multi-purpose works, multi-purpose complexes for business purposes; Projects must organize bidding according to the provisions of specialized laws and laws on socialization.

Thus, the current law on bidding only delimits projects using land to build commercial housing; commercial and service works; multi-purpose works, multi-purpose complexes for business purposes as land access projects for bidding. Other production projects include both land use projects and non-land use projects, as determined by specialized laws. It is necessary to clearly stipulate in the draft Land Law (amended) the cases of bidding to select investors using land, but it is necessary to clearly distinguish between projects that mainly access land and projects in which land is a "derivative".

Carefully study the methods of determining land prices.

In addition, some opinions said that the provisions in the draft Law on "land valuation methods according to market principles" are not really clear; the interests of the State, investors and people must be harmonized. Incorporating the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law amends the provisions in the articles and clauses in Section 2, Chapter XI on the basis for determination, input information, and methods for determining land prices to more specifically institutionalize the requirements in Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW on "having mechanisms and methods for determining land prices according to market principles". Ensuring the harmony of interests of the State, enterprises and people is implemented through preferential policies and investment attraction according to the provisions of the law on investment and the provisions of the law on relevant taxes.

Some opinions proposed more specific regulations on land valuation methods and principles. Some opinions said that the draft Law provides regulations on the most beneficial options for the state budget but has not clearly defined what is “most beneficial”. Some opinions suggested not to stipulate land valuation methods in the draft Law. Some opinions disagreed with the proposal to remove the surplus method.

In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law is amended in the direction of supplementing clear regulations in Clause 4, Article 158 on the content of land valuation methods; removing the regulation on selecting methods according to the principle of "most beneficial to the state budget", replacing it with regulations on the application cases for each specific method; integrating the deduction method into the comparison method, no longer an independent valuation method. However, the content of the methods has changed compared to the provisions of current law in Decree No. 44/2014/ND-CP dated May 15, 2014 of the Government regulating land prices.

The draft Law supplements the surplus method as one of the methods for determining land prices and supplements the corresponding provisions on principles and conditions for application. However, the conditions for applying this method have been narrowed compared to the provisions of current law. These contents are being simultaneously amended and supplemented in the draft Decree amending Decree No. 44/2014/ND-CP, continuing to receive many different opinions. Therefore, the provisions in the Law on methods for determining land prices according to these contents are not the legalization of the provisions of sub-law documents that have been stably implemented in practice.

The Chairman of the Economic Committee also requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to continue to coordinate with relevant agencies to thoroughly study methods for determining land prices and cases and conditions of application, fully explain, clarify the content, study the content to stipulate in the Law to ensure the stability and feasibility of the regulations, and institutionalize the spirit of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW.