Struggling to remove obstacles in land price list in HCMC
The draft land price list in Ho Chi Minh City is of great interest to people, businesses and real estate investors. The reason is that the land price of the Draft Adjusted Land Price List is commonly 10-20 times higher than the land price of the current Land Price List as stipulated in Decision No. 02/2020/QD-UBND dated January 16, 2020 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
According to information from the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department from August 1 to 27, this unit has a backlog of more than 8,800 real estate files pending processing related to financial obligations. Of which, there are 364 files of land use right recognition, 277 files of land use purpose conversion, 5,448 files of real estate transfer and 2,737 files that do not generate financial obligations (personal income tax from real estate transfer, registration fee...).
This number of records has not been resolved because the tax authority is waiting for instructions on how to calculate the new land price list after the 2024 Land Law and Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP take effect from August 1.
Recently, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (TNMT), Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan chaired a working session with a number of ministries and branches on coordinating the handling of Ho Chi Minh City's problems related to the application of land price lists according to the 2024 Land Law.
Speaking to Lao Dong, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) - said that at the meeting, delegates agreed with the need to adjust the land price list of Ho Chi Minh City; stating that the 2024 Land Law clearly stipulates that the authority to adjust belongs to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. The opinions also specifically stated recommendations to resolve administrative procedures regarding financial obligations in the transition period from August 1.
Regarding nearly 9,000 land records stuck at the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, Mr. Chau said that delegates agreed that the tax authority must properly implement the "principle of law application". This means that the records received at a certain time will be considered and resolved by applying the legal regulations in effect at that time.
In addition, after listening to comments, the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that they would absorb the comments, promptly synthesize and report to the Prime Minister for consideration and direction.
Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Duong Ngoc Hai assessed that the adjustment of the land price list is a big and important issue; the scope of affected subjects is large, affecting the socio-economic development of the locality."During the implementation process, we were very cautious, carefully assessed the impact, and fully implemented the prescribed procedures.Ho Chi Minh City hopes to receive comments from ministries, branches, and experts.We will absorb as much as possible so that the adjustment does not have much impact on people and businesses," said Mr. Hai.
People's interests must be promoted
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Real estate legal expert - commented that pushing land prices up, approaching the transaction price on the market, will turn land into a resource for development. The state budget will collect more from land, and people whose land is recovered will be compensated more appropriately.
But on the other hand, it will increase the financial burden for people when paying land use fees, income tax from land use rights transfer, registration fees, etc. If the land price increases by 2 times, the land use fees, taxes, fees, etc. that people have to pay will be twice as high, while this is a large group of subjects.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, the lesson for localities in building land price lists is to build land price lists at a neutral level, harmonizing the interests of the State, enterprises and people, in which the interests of the people must be promoted. In addition, the State also needs to consider other complementary solutions to protect the rights of the people, not creating too great a burden on land use costs in the context of rising land prices.
