The National Assembly Standing Committee discussed overcoming land speculation.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue speaks

Speaking at the 23rd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the afternoon of May 11, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue emphasized that the draft Land Law (amended) has many provisions that the Government must provide detailed guidance on, including land finance issues, methods, procedures, and land price calculation.

These are major issues that need to be legalized so that people and businesses know.

The National Assembly Chairman stated that through review, it was found that the results of collecting public opinions were large-scale and well implemented, and received public attention with over 12 million opinions.

People are very concerned about issues closely related to their lives such as compensation, support, resettlement, land allocation, land lease, land use conversion, land finance and land prices, planning and land use plans.

Therefore, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that there should be a form of reporting back to the people about the collection of opinions and receiving and explaining people's opinions, at least publicly posting the report on the results of collecting people's opinions on the Government's Electronic Information Portal and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The National Assembly Chairman highly appreciated the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee and expected to be submitted to the National Assembly this time, which has been carefully prepared and revised on the basis of seriously and carefully absorbing and selecting many enthusiastic comments from agencies, organizations, universities, research institutes, experts, scientists, businesses and people of all walks of life.

Compared to the previous draft Law, the draft Law presented this time has made important progress in quality, many contents have been revised in detail, more closely following reality, contributing to removing obstacles in land management and use, responding to the requirements of national development in the coming time.

According to the National Assembly Chairman, currently, people and businesses are very interested in calculating annual land use fees and adjusting them when there are fluctuations. When investing, businesses must have very complete input and output parameters to decide on projects and calculate the effectiveness of the project life cycle.

"The adjustment has some years of increase and some years of decrease, but at what level will it be adjusted? Many businesses and people want a maximum level, for example, it can be adjusted but within 5 years it cannot exceed the maximum level by much," the National Assembly Chairman cited, because otherwise many projects will go bankrupt due to unpredictable input costs for businesses.

The National Assembly Chairman said that some contents have been designed, but need to be reviewed closely, because this is a major concern of businesses and people, and is also related to the cost of the economy.

The National Assembly Chairman requested the Government to continue to review to fully institutionalize the viewpoints and thoroughly grasp the contents of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 5th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to innovate and perfect institutions and policies, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and use, creating momentum to turn our country into a developed country with high income.

In particular, there is a requirement that land must be investigated, evaluated, statistically recorded, inventoried, quantified and fully accounted for in the economy. Therefore, the Drafting Committee and the reviewing agency should study and design some additional articles or have a separate chapter to regulate this content appropriately.

The National Assembly Chairman noted a number of other contents that need to be further reviewed for further improvement, such as the mechanism for determining land prices according to market principles; stipulating higher tax rates for those who own large areas of land, speculate or delay in using land, or abandon land; implementing non-cash payments in real estate transactions; encouraging the development of the land use rights market, especially the agricultural land lease market; mechanisms to ensure the healthy, safe, and sustainable development of the real estate market; strictly controlling and overcoming land speculation.

Concerned about the issue of land reclamation, Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Judicial Committee Le Thi Nga emphasized that land reclamation is a matter of great concern to voters and the people. This is also an issue that is subject to many complaints.

The Draft Law separates the provisions on land recovery into two articles, of which Article 74 stipulates land recovery for national defense and security purposes and Article 75 stipulates land recovery for socio-economic development for national and public interests.

“It is necessary to make transparent the processes, criteria, and conditions for land recovery through administrative means to avoid complaints and ensure compliance with land recovery criteria,” Ms. Le Thi Nga emphasized.

Affirming the view that the more specific the regulation, the better, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee agreed with the plan to specify the cases of land recovery for national defense and security purposes and land recovery for socio-economic development for national and public interests; at the same time, he proposed to review Articles 74 and 75 to provide very specific regulations, anticipating cases that will occur in practice to ensure the transparency of the draft Law.

Concluding the session, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man affirmed that this is a very important Law project, a focus in the law-making work of the 15th National Assembly.

Therefore, it is necessary to continue to review, carefully research, synthesize and fully absorb the opinions of the people as well as those of National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee, and National Assembly agencies.

In order for the draft Law dossier to continue to be completed with the highest quality, the Standing Vice Chairman of the National Assembly noted that it is necessary to deeply reflect the content of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, only including in the law issues that are correct and appropriate, mature, clear, and proven in practice.

Along with that, it is necessary to continue to review and carefully consider regulations on conditions for land allocation and lease; principles and methods of land valuation; compensation and resettlement policies when land is recovered, ensuring strictness and suitability with the characteristics of each region, not affecting the legitimate rights and interests of people whose land is recovered...

The Standing Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Government to direct the drafting agency and relevant agencies to urgently study the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the examining agency to complete the draft Law to be submitted to the National Assembly at the 5th Session.

According to VNA