Urgently complete the Decree regulating land use fees and land rents.

On the afternoon of May 20, at the Government Headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a national online meeting on the draft Decree detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the 2024 Land Law, related to land use fees and land rents.

At the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that these are important contents so that the Land Law, Real Estate Business Law, and Housing Law take effect 6 months earlier than stipulated in the law.

The meeting sought serious, substantive, and broad opinions from relevant parties such as localities, associations, businesses, experts, etc. before promulgation to ensure consistent implementation conditions from top to bottom.

“The draft decrees guiding the Land Law must closely follow and fully institutionalize the contents of the law assigned to the Government for detailed guidance, without omitting any content; connect and synchronize with other laws, without contradiction, overlap, or crossing levels; and at the same time carry the breath and voice of practical life,” the Deputy Prime Minister stated.

In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Finance to urgently explain, receive and complete the draft Decree regulating land use fees and land rents to submit to the Government for consideration and decision, ensuring sufficient conditions for the 2024 Land Law to take effect soon.

Previously, at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Finance Bui Van Khang said that the draft Decree on land use fees and land rent has 5 chapters and 54 articles, regulating the scope of regulation, applicable subjects; calculation, collection and payment of land use fees; calculation, collection and payment of land rent; responsibilities of agencies and land users; and implementation provisions.

Representatives of some associations, real estate businesses, and localities discussed and proposed adding more cases arising from practice for groups of content with different opinions.

Specifically, for projects that change detailed planning without changing the decision on land allocation or land lease, the plan proposed by the Ministry of Finance is based on the principle of recalculating all land use fees and land rents, as a basis for investors to pay more in case of increase or be refunded in case of decrease. Opinions say that this provision contributes to limiting and avoiding the exploitation of detailed planning adjustments after winning the auction.

Some opinions clearly distinguish cases of detailed planning adjustment according to the investor's proposal or changes by the State according to management requirements to have a suitable calculation formula for each case, maximally protecting the interests of enterprises.

In principle, the subjects exempted from or reduced from land use fees and land rents are designed in the direction of inheriting current regulations that have been stably implemented in the past.

Notably, subjects exempted or reduced from land rent who transfer or contribute capital using land use rights or transfer investment projects must pay the State the amount of land use fees and land rent that have been exempted or reduced.

Receiving opinions at the meeting, the leaders of the Ministry of Finance requested ministries and branches to report and propose other cases requiring exemption or reduction of land use fees (if any) to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration according to the provisions of the Land Law.

Regarding the regulations on unit prices and the period of stable land rent payment without auction, the opinions basically agree with the content of the draft decree on the percentage of calculating the annual land rent (from 0.25-3%) and assign the provincial People's Committee to decide and announce the details. The annual land rent will be stable for 5 years and will be adjusted not to exceed the total annual consumer price index (CPI) of the whole country in the 5-year period immediately preceding the adjustment time.

Regarding the procedure for calculating, collecting and paying land use fees and land rent, Deputy Minister Bui Van Khang said that to limit the situation of outstanding land rent and land use fees, the draft Decree stipulates: Land use fees and land rent (financial obligations) must be paid before land can be allocated or leased.

Opinions also agreed with the draft regulations on the transition of the amount of money that land users must pay additionally for the time not yet calculated according to the provisions of the 2024 Land Law; transition for land of public service units...