On July 1, Decree No. 151/2025/ND-CP of the Government regulating the division of authority of local authorities at 02 levels, decentralization of authority, and delegation of authority in the field of land officially took effect. Lao Dong Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Mai Van Phan - Deputy Director of the Department of Land Management (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) about important changes in the operation of land administrative procedures.
Decree 151 has come into effect, accordingly, the commune level is assigned many new powers. Can you generalise the highlights of this Decree, especially in the issue of granting land use right certificates to people?
- Regarding the content of granting Certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land (Certificate), Decree 151/2025/ND-CP of the Government has changed the order and procedures for granting Certificates for the first time to domestic individuals, overseas Vietnamese who are Vietnamese citizens and communities from the district level to the commune level, ward level or cases where land-using organizations are allocated land by the State without collecting land use fees/exemption of all land use fees or land rents but are exempted from all land use fees and land rents for the entire lease term and give authority to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune or ward to issue Certificates.
The biggest difference is that before, to resolve procedures for granting the first Certificate, it had to go through 2 levels, from July 1, the settlement of procedures for granting the Certificate was only carried out at one level, which was the commune or ward. Basically, the procedures for granting Certificates under the authority of the district and provincial levels (for economic organizations that are allocated land or leased land without having to fulfill financial obligations on land use fees) will now be implemented by the commune level.
So what changes will there be in the certification process, with the decentralization of many authority to the commune level, how will it facilitate people in handling land administrative procedures, sir?
- According to the process, people submitting applications for a Certificate will submit applications for a Certificate at the place of receipt of the application according to regulations, the commune-level land management agency will base on specific cases and related policies to resolve such as: Classification with documents on land use rights or no documents on land use rights, violations or land allocated without authority as prescribed in Articles 137, 130, 139, 140 of the Land Law for settlement.
To reduce procedures and processing time, some previous work steps from the commune to the district level have also been eliminated, such as the establishment of the first Land Registration Council to advise on the implementation of tasks related to reviewing and granting Certificates...
In addition, to implement the policy of clearly stating the person, work, responsibilities, and authority to issue Certificates, which has changed from the general authority of the District People's Committee to the exclusive authority of the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune or ward,
Thus, from July 1, 2025, when there is no district-level government organization, all procedures for granting first red books to people will be under the authority of the People's Committees at the commune, ward and special zone levels. This will shorten the process and reduce the time to carry out procedures for granting Certificates to people.
According to the new regulations, the issuance of certificates will not have to determine whether the land is in dispute or not, how will this be implemented, sir?
- This was previously done at two levels, in which the authority to issue Certificates was at the district level. But this time, the authority has been transferred to the commune level - that is, the level of direct management. When a commune is a direct management agency, the commune-level government must clearly know the actual situation: whether there is a dispute or not, whether there is encroachment or not.
Therefore, the commune is the unit that decides on this, not only confirming the dispute situation but then sending the file to the district for the district to review the conditions and issue a certificate to the people. Now that the authority has been assigned to the commune, the commune-level government must directly clearly affirm whether there is a dispute or not, whether there is encroachment or not, whether there is a violation or not.
How is the process of land registration and issuance of Certificates understood, sir?
- Land registration is mandatory for land users and those who are allocated land for management. This regulation aims to create a state management dossier and at the same time verify the current status of land use and management of land users or those assigned by the state to manage land. When a land user needs to issue a Certificate of Land Financial Obligations, it is a separate procedure and is determined by the tax authority. According to current regulations, this process takes 17 days, down 3 days compared to before.
After having confirmation of completion of land financial obligations, the People's Committee at the commune level will carry out the procedure for granting the first Certificate within 3 days.
Regarding implementation capacity, previously the district level had a specialized department to carry out land procedures before submitting to the district-level People's Committee for signing and issuing the Certificate, but now the commune-level People's Committee also has a specialized department to carry out related land procedures before directly submitting to the Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee for signing the Certificate.
With the model of local government at 2 levels including the provincial and commune levels, decentralizing to the commune level to issue Certificates to people is practical, close to the people, close to the land users, with the regulation that there are only 2 levels: the commune level and the provincial level, if all are transferred to the province, it will be difficult for the administrative procedure handling agency to accompany the people, especially in remote areas. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment always accompanies localities.
We give everyone the right to go hand in hand with control, not loosely, to ensure effective implementation. We have the Law on Anti-Corruption, the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants, the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations and many other laws to control land management activities.
Thank you for sharing!
