Enterprises are upset about high land use fees
While the story of Lotte Group stopping investment in the Lotte Eco Smart City Thu Thiem smart complex project (commercial name Eco Smart City) is still hot, recently, De Vuong City Joint Venture Company Limited, the investor of the Thu Thiem observation Tower Complex project (HCMC) has sent a document to Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc requesting to re-determine additional financial obligations for the above project.
This enterprise said that on September 5, 2016, Ho Chi Minh City issued a decision to hand over to the company more than 11 hectares of land with land use fees collected for a period of 50 years, starting from June 23, 2015. By early 2017, the company had fulfilled its financial obligations for the above project of nearly VND 3,600 billion.
According to the city's decision, investors do not have to pay additional financial obligations when converting from leasing land with one-time payment to allocating land with land use fees. On that basis, the enterprise has built and handed over 3 clusters of works with nearly 1,200 apartments to residents.
However, from 2019 to now, the project has been stalled due to the failure to completely resolve additional financial obligations according to the conclusion of the Government Inspectorate.
The authorities proposed an additional financial obligations plan for the project of up to more than VND 8,800 billion, an increase of 246% compared to the land use fee paid. At the same time, it will force the content of the case later.
That has caused frustration for investors. This enterprise proposed that the competent authority consider determining additional financial obligations in accordance with the spirit of the Conclusion of the Government Inspectorate, based on the time frame for land allocation in 2015 and applying legal documents effective at that time, Circular 36/2014.
Incorporate the planning adjustment factor into the process of determining additional financial obligations this time, avoiding having to do it many times, causing waste of time and resources for both management agencies and businesses.
Enterprises are "asked" for land use fees
Currently, hundreds of real estate projects in the city are in a state of freezing or temporarily suspending further legal procedures due to the delay and prolongation of the organization of determining specific land prices.
The consequences are that many projects cannot be implemented according to the plan, investors have difficulty bringing products to the market to recover capital, easily causing financial imbalance, slowing down the budget collection progress.
Not only that, many businesses are upset that the delay in land valuation to calculate land use fees is due to the delay of the authorities, but businesses have to pay the late payment of 5.4%/year on the land use fee.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just sent a document to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and the Minister of Agriculture and Environment proposing to consider amending the provisions of the 2024 Land Law related to determining specific land prices, to remove obstacles for nearly 100 land records for real estate projects in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Article 63 of Decree 102/2024 stipulates the determination of land prices according to the land price adjustment coefficient (coefficient K) method for land allocated or leased by the State before the 2013 Land Law. Due to the time of determining specific land prices in the past (before the 2013 Land Law), it was too long, so there were many difficulties in collecting old information as a basis for organizing specific land price determination and it was almost impossible to do so.
Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has issued an official dispatch to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment on problems related to the method of applying the land price adjustment coefficient, to apply to the above cases according to the provisions of Decree 102. After that, the Department of Planning and Land Resources Development issued instructions on implementation according to the land price adjustment coefficient method for cases where specific land prices must be determined. However, this method cannot be implemented because it is not possible to collect information about comparative assets of similar nature in the past for application.
"The deadlock in organizing specific land prices has become a bottleneck in the socio-economic development process of Ho Chi Minh City in particular as well as the urban development process in the whole country in general. Up to now, hundreds of real estate projects in the city are in a state of freezing or temporarily suspending further legal procedures, causing many consequences...", the document of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee stated.
To remove the above difficulties and obstacles, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee continues to issue an official dispatch to report to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. On August 15, the Government issued Decree No. 226/2025 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the decrees detailing the implementation of the 2024 Land Law. However, the content of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee's report and recommendations to amend and supplement Article 63 of Decree No. 102 has not been amended or supplemented. Therefore, to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed that Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha assign the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and relevant ministries and branches to amend and supplement Article 63 of Decree No. 102 in the direction of allowing the application of the land price adjustment coefficient issued by the provincial People's Committee in 2015. This ensures that it is suitable for market prices.
