The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment received a petition from voters in Bac Ninh province with the content: Proposing to amend Article 123 of the 2024 Land Law in the direction of decentralizing to the commune level to: Lease land belonging to agricultural land funds used for public purposes of communes and wards; lease land for agriculture or aquaculture or small commercial service land for business and trading for a limited time.
Regarding this proposal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reports as follows:
- Clause 3, Article 123 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates the authority to allocate land, lease land, and permit land use purpose conversion:
“3. Commune-level People's Committees lease land belonging to agricultural land funds used for public purposes of communes, wards, and towns”.
- Clause 3, Article 179 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates the management and use of agricultural land funds used for public purposes as follows:
“3. For land areas that have not been used for the purposes specified in Clause 2 of this Article, the commune-level People's Committee leases them to individuals in the locality for agricultural production and aquaculture in the form of auctions. The land use term for each lease is no more than 10 years”.
- Article 56 of Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP dated July 30, 2024 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Land Law has specifically stipulated the auction of land use rights for agricultural land area not yet used for public purposes.
- According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree No. 49/2026/ND-CP dated January 31, 2026 of the Government detailing and guiding a number of articles of Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly stipulating a number of mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties and obstacles in organizing the implementation of the Land Law (called Decree No. 49/2026/ND-CP), the Provincial People's Committee shall base on the Law on Organization of Local Government, Resolution No. 190/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on handling a number of issues related to the arrangement of the state apparatus and the actual situation of the locality to decide on the decentralization and authorization of agencies and people with authority to carry out land allocation and land lease accordingly.
Based on the above legal regulations, the commune-level People's Committee is allowed to lease land belonging to the agricultural land fund used for public purposes. For agricultural land or aquaculture land or small-scale commercial service land, the provincial-level People's Committee shall, based on the provisions of Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree No. 49/2026/ND-CP, consider and decentralize to the commune-level People's Committee to carry out term leasing to ensure compliance with the actual situation in the locality.
